Liu Zu Da Shi Fa Bao Tan Jing (六祖大師法寶壇經)

風旛報恩光孝禪寺住持嗣祖比丘宗寶編

Compiled and edited by the bhikshu Zongbao, abbot of the Fengfan Bao'en Guangxiao Chan Monastery and heir to the Dharma. (Zongbao was a monk of the Yuan dynasty, and the commonly circulated edition of the Platform Sutra was reedited by him.)

時，大師至寶林。韶州韋刺史(名璩)與官僚入山請師，出於城中大梵寺講堂，為眾開緣說法。師陞座次，刺史官僚三十餘人，儒宗學士三十餘人，僧尼道俗一千餘人，同時作禮，願聞法要。

At that time, the Master arrived at Baolin Monastery. Wei Qu, the prefect of Shaozhou, and his subordinate officials went into the mountains to invite the Master, and to the lecture hall of Dafan Monastery in the city to open the Dharma conditions and teach the Buddha's Dharma for the assembly. When the Master ascended the Dharma seat, the prefect and more than thirty officials, more than thirty Confucian scholars, and more than a thousand monks, nuns and lay followers all paid their respects at the same time, wishing to hear the essentials of the Dharma.

大師告眾曰：「善知識！菩提自性，本來清淨，但用此心，直了成佛。善知識！且聽惠能行由，得法事意。惠能嚴父，本貫範陽，左降流於嶺南，作新州百姓。此身不幸，父又早亡。老母孤遺，移來南海，艱辛貧乏，於市賣柴。時，有一客買柴，使令送至客店；客收去，惠能得錢，卻出門外，見一客誦經。惠能一聞經語，心即開悟，遂問：『客誦何經？』客曰：『《金剛經》。』復問：『從何所來，持此經典？』客云：『我從蘄州黃梅縣東禪寺來。其寺是五祖忍大師在彼主化，門人一千有餘；我到彼中禮拜，聽受此經。大師常勸僧俗，但持《金剛經》，即自見性，直了成佛。』惠能聞說，宿昔有緣，乃蒙一客，取銀十兩與惠能，令充老母衣糧，教便往黃梅參禮五祖。

The Master told the assembly: "Good friends! The enlightened self-nature is originally pure; if you simply use this mind, you can directly reach understanding and become a buddha. Good friends! Listen to how I, Huineng, obtained the Dharma and the causes behind it. My father was originally from Fanyang, but was demoted and exiled to Lingnan and became a commoner of Xinzhou. In this life I was unfortunate, and my father died early. My lonely old mother brought me to Nanhai, where life was hard and poor, and I sold firewood in the market. Once, a customer bought firewood and had me deliver it to an inn; the customer took the firewood, and I took the money and went out the door, and saw a guest reciting a sutra. As soon as I heard the words in the sutra, my mind awakened on the spot, and I asked: 'What sutra are you reciting, sir?' He said: 'The Diamond Sutra.' I asked again: 'Where do you come from, that you hold this scripture?' He said: 'I come from Dongchan Monastery in Huangmei County, Qizhou. That monastery is where the Fifth Patriarch, Master Hongren, serves as abbot and teaches, and he has over a thousand disciples; I went there to pay homage and received this scripture. The Master often urged monastics and laypeople that simply by upholding the Diamond Sutra, one can see one's own nature and directly reach understanding and become a buddha.' Hearing these words, I thought that I must have had a connection in a former life, and was fortunate that a guest took ten taels of silver and gave them to me to use for my old mother's clothing and food, and taught me to go at once to Huangmei to pay homage to the Fifth Patriarch."

「惠能安置母畢，即便辭違。不經三十餘日，便至黃梅，禮拜五祖。祖問曰：『汝何方人？欲求何物？』惠能對曰：『弟子是嶺南新州百姓，遠來禮師，惟求作佛，不求餘物。』祖言：『汝是嶺南人，又是獵獠，若為堪作佛？』惠能曰：『人雖有南北，佛性本無南北；獵獠身與和尚不同，佛性有何差別？』五祖更欲與語，且見徒眾總在左右，乃令隨眾作務。惠能曰：『惠能啟和尚，弟子自心，常生智慧，不離自性，即是福田。未審和尚教作何務？』祖云：『這獦獠根性大利！汝更勿言，著槽廠去。』惠能退至後院，有一行者，差惠能破柴踏碓。經八月餘，祖一日忽見惠能曰：『吾思汝之見可用，恐有惡人害汝，遂不與汝言。汝知之否？』惠能曰：『弟子亦知師意，不敢行至堂前，令人不覺。』

"After I had settled my mother, I took leave at once and set out. In little over thirty days I arrived at Huangmei and paid homage to the Fifth Patriarch. The Fifth Patriarch asked: 'Where are you from? What do you seek?' I answered: 'Your disciple is a commoner of Xinzhou in Lingnan, and I have come a long way to pay homage to the Master, seeking only to become a buddha and nothing else.' The Fifth Patriarch said: 'You are a man of Lingnan, and a Geliao (a contemptuous term then used for southern minorities); how can you become a buddha?' I said: 'Though people may be southern or northern, Buddha-nature originally has no south or north; this Geliao body is different from the Abbot's, but what difference is there in Buddha-nature?' The Fifth Patriarch wished to speak more with me, but seeing the disciples all around, he told me to go with the others and work. I said: 'Huineng reports to the Abbot: in my own heart wisdom constantly arises, and I do not depart from my own nature; this is the field of blessing. I do not know what work the Abbot wishes me to do?' The Fifth Patriarch said: 'This Geliao has very sharp faculties! Say no more, and go to the threshing room.' I withdrew to the rear courtyard, where a lay worker had me split firewood and tread the pestle. After more than eight months, one day the Fifth Patriarch suddenly saw me and said: 'I think your understanding is of use, but I feared evil people might harm you, so I never spoke to you. Did you know?' I said: 'Your disciple also knew the Master's intention, and so did not dare go to the front of the hall, lest people notice.'"

「祖一日喚諸門人總來：『吾向汝說，世人生死事大，汝等終日只求福田，不求出離生死苦海；自性若迷，福何可救？汝等各去，自看智慧，取自本心般若之性，各作一偈，來呈吾看。若悟大意，付汝衣法，為第六代祖。火急速去，不得遲滯，思量即不中用；見性之人，言下須見。若如此者，輪刀上陣，亦得見之。』(喻利根者)眾得處分，退而遞相謂曰：『我等眾人，不須澄心用意作偈，將呈和尚，有何所益？神秀上座，現為教授師，必是他得。我輩謾作偈頌，枉用心力。』餘人聞語，總皆息心，鹹言：『我等已後依止秀師，何煩作偈？』神秀思惟：『諸人不呈偈者，為我與他為教授師；我須作偈，將呈和尚，若不呈偈，和尚如何知我心中見解深淺？我呈偈意，求法即善，覓祖即惡，卻同凡心，奪其聖位奚別？若不呈偈，終不得法。大難！大難！』

"One day the Fifth Patriarch called all his disciples: 'I tell you, birth and death are a great matter for people of the world; all day long you seek only fields of blessing and do not seek to escape the sea of suffering of birth and death; if your self-nature is deluded, how can blessings save you? Each of you go back and observe your own wisdom, take the nature of prajna in your own original mind, and each compose a verse to present to me. If you comprehend the great meaning, I will pass the robe and Dharma to him to be the Sixth Patriarch. Go quickly, no delay; to ponder with the mind is of no use, and one who sees his nature should see it at a single word. Such a person, even charging into battle swinging a sword, will see it all the same.' (This is a simile for people of sharp capacity.) The assembly, having received the instruction, withdrew and said to one another: 'We need not clear our minds and strain to compose a verse; what use is it to present one to the Abbot? Senior Shenxiu is now the teaching master, and surely it is he who will obtain the Dharma. If we compose verses carelessly, it will be wasted effort.' The others, hearing this, all put their minds at rest, and all said: 'From now on we will rely on Master Shenxiu; why bother composing verses?' Shenxiu thought: 'The others do not present verses because I am their teaching master; I must compose a verse and present it to the Abbot; if I do not present one, how will the Abbot know how deep or shallow my understanding is? My purpose in presenting the verse, if it is to seek the Dharma, is good, but if it is to seek the patriarch's seat, it is bad, and then it would be the same as the mind of an ordinary person, no different from seizing the sacred seat. But if I do not present a verse, I will never obtain the Dharma. How hard! How hard!'"

「五祖堂前，有步廊三間，擬請供奉盧珍，畫楞伽經變相，及五祖血脈圖，流傳供養。神秀作偈成已，數度欲呈，行至堂前，心中恍惚，遍身汗流，擬呈不得；前後經四日，一十三度呈偈不得。秀乃思惟：『不如向廊下書著，從他和尚看見，忽若道好，即出禮拜，雲是秀作；若道不堪，枉向山中數年，受人禮拜，更修何道？』是夜三更，不使人知，自執燈，書偈於南廊壁間，呈心所見。偈曰：

"In front of the Fifth Patriarch's hall there were three corridors, and he had meant to invite the court painter Lu Zhen to paint scenes from the Lankavatara Sutra and the lineage chart of the Fifth Patriarch's line, to be handed down and venerated. After Shenxiu composed his verse, several times he wished to go present it, but on reaching the front of the hall his mind went blank and sweat poured over his whole body, and though he wanted to present it he could not; over four days, thirteen times, he could not present it. Shenxiu then thought: 'It would be better to write it in the corridor and let the Abbot see it; if he says it is good, I will come out and bow, and say I wrote it; if he says it will not do, then I have wasted years cultivating in the mountains and receiving people's homage, and what Way is left to cultivate?' That night at the third watch, without letting anyone know, he took a lamp himself and wrote the verse on the wall of the south corridor, revealing what he saw in his mind. The verse said:"

「身是菩提樹，心如明鏡臺，

The body is the bodhi tree, the mind is like a bright mirror stand,

時時勤拂拭，勿使惹塵埃。

Constantly and diligently wipe it clean, and let no dust alight."

「秀書偈了，便卻歸房，人總不知。秀復思惟：『五祖明日見偈歡喜，即我與法有緣；若言不堪，自是我迷，宿業障重，不合得法。』聖意難測，房中思想，坐臥不安，直至五更。祖已知神秀入門未得，不見自性。

"After writing the verse, Shenxiu went back to his room, and no one else knew. He thought again: 'If the Fifth Patriarch is pleased with the verse tomorrow, it means I have a connection with the Dharma; if he says it will not do, then it is I who am deluded, my karmic obstacles from past lives are heavy, and I should not obtain the Dharma.' The mind of a sage is hard to fathom; in his room he pondered it over and over, unable to sit or lie at ease, until the fifth watch. The Fifth Patriarch in fact already knew that Shenxiu had not yet entered the gate and had not seen his own nature."

「天明，祖喚盧供奉來，向南廊壁間，繪畫圖相，忽見其偈，報言：『供奉卻不用畫，勞爾遠來。經云：「凡所有相，皆是虛妄。」但留此偈，與人誦持。依此偈修，免墮惡道；依此偈修，有大利益。』令門人炷香禮敬，盡誦此偈，即得見性。門人誦偈，皆歎善哉。

"At dawn, the Fifth Patriarch called for Court Painter Lu to paint on the wall of the south corridor, and suddenly saw the verse, and said to him: 'Court Painter, there is no need to paint, though I have troubled you to come from afar. The sutra says: "All that has form is illusory." Leave only this verse for people to recite and hold. Practicing according to this verse, one can avoid falling into evil realms; practicing according to this verse, there is great benefit.' He also had his disciples light incense and pay respects, and all recite this verse, so that they could see their nature. The disciples recited the verse and all praised it as good."

「祖，三更喚秀入堂，問曰：『偈是汝作否？』秀言：『實是秀作，不敢妄求祖位，望和尚慈悲，看弟子有少智慧否？』祖曰：『汝作此偈，未見本性，只到門外，未入門內。如此見解，覓無上菩提，了不可得；無上菩提，須得言下識自本心，見自本性不生不滅；於一切時中，念念自見萬法無滯，一真一切真，萬境自如如。如如之心，即是真實。若如是見，即是無上菩提之自性也。汝且去，一兩日思惟，更作一偈，將來吾看；汝偈若入得門，付汝衣法。』神秀作禮而出。又經數日，作偈不成，心中恍惚，神思不安，猶如夢中，行坐不樂。

"At the third watch the Fifth Patriarch summoned Shenxiu into the hall and asked: 'Did you compose the verse?' Shenxiu said: 'I truly did, and I dare not wrongly seek the patriarch's seat; I only hope that the Abbot in his compassion will see whether your disciple has a little wisdom.' The Fifth Patriarch said: 'In composing this verse you have not yet seen your original nature; you have only reached outside the gate and have not entered. With such understanding to seek unsurpassed bodhi, it is utterly impossible to attain; unsurpassed bodhi requires recognizing your own original mind at a word, and seeing that your own nature neither arises nor perishes; at all times, in every thought, you yourself see that the myriad dharmas are without hindrance; when one thing is true, all things are true, and the myriad realms are naturally just as they are. This mind of suchness, unmoving, is the truth. If you can see in this way, that is the self-nature of unsurpassed bodhi. Go back for now, think for a day or two, and compose another verse to bring me; if your verse can enter the gate, I will pass the robe and Dharma to you.' Shenxiu bowed and withdrew. Several more days passed, and he could not compose a verse; his mind was blank and his spirit unsettled, as though in a dream, and walking, sitting and lying down he was never at ease."

「復兩日，有一童子於碓坊過，唱誦其偈；惠能一聞，便知此偈未見本性，雖未蒙教授，早識大意。遂問童子曰：『誦者何偈？』童子曰：『爾這獵獠不知，大師言：「世人生死事大，欲得傳付衣法，令門人作偈來看。若悟大意，即付衣法為第六祖。」神秀上座，於南廊壁上，書無相偈，大師令人皆誦，依此偈修，免墮惡道；依此偈修，有大利益。』惠能曰：『(一本有我亦要誦此，結來生緣)上人！我此踏碓，八箇餘月，未曾行到堂前。望上人引至偈前禮拜。』童子引至偈前禮拜，惠能曰：『惠能不識字，請上人為讀。』時，有江州別駕，姓張名日用，便高聲讀。惠能聞已，遂言：『亦有一偈，望別駕為書。』別駕言：『汝亦作偈？其事希有。』惠能向別駕言：『欲學無上菩提，不得輕於初學。下下人有上上智，上上人有沒意智。若輕人，即有無量無邊罪。』別駕言：『汝但誦偈，吾為汝書。汝若得法，先須度吾。勿忘此言。』惠能偈曰：

"Two more days passed, and a boy passing the threshing room recited that verse all along the way; as soon as I heard it, I knew the verse had not yet seen the nature. Though I had received no instruction, I already knew the great meaning. I asked the boy: 'What verse are you reciting?' The boy said: 'You Geliao do not know; the Master said: "Birth and death are a great matter for people of the world; I wish to pass on the robe and Dharma, and have my disciples compose verses to show me. If one comprehends the great meaning, I will pass the robe and Dharma to him to be the Sixth Patriarch." Senior Shenxiu wrote a verse of no-form on the south corridor wall, and the Master told everyone to recite it; practicing according to this verse, one can avoid falling into evil realms; practicing according to it, there is great benefit.' I said: '(Some editions add here the line "I too will recite this verse, to form a connection for the next life.") Sir! I have been treading the pestle here for more than eight months and have never gone to the front of the hall. Please take me to the verse to pay homage.' The boy led me to the verse and I bowed, and I said: 'Huineng cannot read; please, sir, read it for me.' At that time there was a deputy governor of Jiangzhou, surnamed Zhang and named Riyong, who read it aloud. When I had heard it, I said: 'I also have a verse; please, Deputy Governor, write it down for me.' The deputy governor said: 'You can compose verses too? That is remarkable.' I said to the deputy governor: 'If you wish to study unsurpassed bodhi, you must not look down on beginners. The lowest of people may have the highest wisdom, and the highest of people may bury their wisdom. If you look down on others, you commit immeasurable, boundless faults.' The deputy governor said: 'Just recite your verse, and I will write it for you. If you obtain the Dharma, you must liberate me first. Do not forget these words.' My verse was:"

「菩提本無樹，明鏡亦非臺；

Bodhi originally has no tree, nor is the bright mirror any stand;

本來無一物，何處惹塵埃？

Originally there is not a single thing; where could dust alight?"

「書此偈已，徒眾總驚，無不嗟訝，各相謂言：『奇哉！不得以貌取人，何得多時使他肉身菩薩。』祖見眾人驚怪，恐人損害，遂將鞋擦了偈，曰：『亦未見性。』眾以為然。

"When this verse was written, the assembly was stunned, and everyone was astonished, saying to one another: 'Strange! One truly cannot judge a person by appearance; how did he become a living Bodhisattva in so short a time?' The Fifth Patriarch, seeing the assembly's astonishment, feared someone might harm me, and wiped out the verse with his shoe, saying: 'He has not seen his nature either.' The assembly then took it to be so."

「次日，祖潛至碓坊，見能腰石舂米，語曰：『求道之人，為法忘軀，當如是乎！』乃問曰：『米熟也未？』惠能曰：『米熟久矣，猶欠篩在。』祖以杖擊碓三下而去。惠能即會祖意，三鼓入室；祖以袈裟遮圍，不令人見，為說《金剛經》。至『應無所住而生其心』，惠能言下大悟，一切萬法，不離自性。遂啟祖言：『何期自性，本自清淨；何期自性，本不生滅；何期自性，本自具足；何期自性，本無動搖；何期自性，能生萬法。』祖知悟本性，謂惠能曰：『不識本心，學法無益；若識自本心，見自本性，即名丈夫、天人師、佛。』三更受法，人盡不知，便傳頓教及衣缽，云：『汝為第六代祖，善自護念，廣度有情，流佈將來，無令斷絕。聽吾偈曰：

"The next day, the Fifth Patriarch quietly came to the threshing room, and seeing me with a stone tied to my waist pounding rice, said: 'One who seeks the Way and forgets himself for the Dharma should be like this!' Then he asked: 'Is the rice ripe yet?' I said: 'The rice has long been ripe; it only lacks sifting.' The Fifth Patriarch struck the pestle three times with his staff and left. I immediately understood the Fifth Patriarch's meaning, and at the third watch went into his room; the Fifth Patriarch screened me with his robe so that no one could see, and taught me the Diamond Sutra. When he came to 'One should give rise to a mind that abides nowhere,' I was greatly and thoroughly awakened at those words: all the myriad dharmas are never apart from self-nature. Then I reported to the Fifth Patriarch: 'I never thought that self-nature is originally pure; I never thought that self-nature originally neither arises nor perishes; I never thought that self-nature is originally complete in itself; I never thought that self-nature originally has no wavering; I never thought that self-nature can give rise to the myriad dharmas.' The Fifth Patriarch knew I had realized my original nature, and said to me: 'If you do not recognize your original mind, studying the Dharma is of no use; if you recognize your own original mind and see your own nature, you are called a great man, teacher of gods and humans, a buddha.' I received the Dharma at the third watch, and no one knew; the Fifth Patriarch then passed the Sudden Teaching and the robe and bowl to me, saying: 'You are the Sixth Patriarch; take good care of yourself, liberate beings widely, and pass on the Dharma, and do not let it be cut off. Listen to my verse:"

「『有情來下種，因地果還生，

Sentient beings come and sow the seed; from this causal ground the fruit naturally arises;

無情既無種，無性亦無生。』

Insentient things, since no seed can be sown, have no Buddha-nature and so no growth.'"

「祖復曰：『昔達磨大師，初來此土，人未之信，故傳此衣，以為信體，代代相承；法則以心傳心，皆令自悟自解。自古，佛佛惟傳本體，師師密付本心；衣為爭端，止汝勿傳。若傳此衣，命如懸絲。汝須速去，恐人害汝。』惠能啟曰：『向甚處去？』祖云：『逢懷則止，遇會則藏。』惠能三更領得衣缽，云：『能本是南中人，素不知此山路，如何出得江口？』五祖言：『汝不須憂，吾自送汝。』祖相送，直至九江驛。祖令上船，五祖把艣自搖。惠能言：『請和尚坐。弟子合搖艣。』祖云：『合是吾渡汝。』惠能云：『迷時師度，悟了自度；度名雖一，用處不同。惠能生在邊方，語音不正，蒙師傳法，今已得悟，只合自性自度。』祖云：『如是，如是！以後佛法，由汝大行。汝去三年，吾方逝世。汝今好去，努力向南。不宜速說，佛法難起。』

"The Fifth Patriarch said further: 'In the past, when Master Bodhidharma first came to this land, people did not believe him, so this robe was handed down as a token of faith, passed on from generation to generation; as for the Dharma, it is passed from mind to mind, and everyone must awaken to it and understand it for himself. From ancient times, buddha to buddha has only passed on this original substance, and teacher to teacher has silently entrusted this original mind. The robe is the source of strife and misfortune; stop passing it on with you. If this robe is passed on again, your life will hang as by a thread. You must leave quickly, for I fear someone may harm you.' I asked: 'Where should I go?' The Fifth Patriarch said: 'When you meet "Huai," stop; when you meet "Hui," hide.' At the third watch I received the robe and bowl, and said: 'Huineng is a southerner, and has never known the mountain paths here; how can I get out to the river mouth?' The Fifth Patriarch said: 'Do not worry; I will see you off myself.' The Fifth Patriarch saw me off all the way to the Jiujiang post station. The Fifth Patriarch told me to board the boat, and himself took the oar and rowed. I said: 'Please sit down, Abbot; it should be your disciple who rows.' The Fifth Patriarch said: 'It is I who should carry you across.' I said: 'When deluded, it is the teacher who carries one across; when awakened, one carries oneself across; though both are called crossing, their use is not the same. Huineng was born in a remote place and my accent is not correct, yet I have received the Dharma from my teacher, and now that I have awakened, I should cross by my own nature.' The Fifth Patriarch said: 'Just so, just so! In the future the Buddha-Dharma will rely on you to flourish greatly. I will pass away three years after you leave. Go well now, and strive to go south. Do not be in a hurry to teach the Dharma, for the Buddha-Dharma is hard to raise up.'"

「惠能辭違祖已，發足南行。兩月中間，至大庾嶺(五祖歸，數日不上堂。眾疑，詣問曰：『和尚少病少惱否？』曰：『病即無。衣法已南矣。』問：『誰人傳授？』曰：『能者得之。』眾乃知焉)。逐後數百人來，欲奪衣缽。一僧俗姓陳，名惠明，先是四品將軍，性行麁慥，極意參尋。為眾人先，趁及惠能。惠能擲下衣缽於石上，云：『此衣表信，可力爭耶？』能隱草莽中。惠明至，提掇不動，乃喚云：『行者！行者！我為法來，不為衣來。』惠能遂出，坐盤石上。惠明作禮云：『望行者為我說法。』惠能云：『汝既為法而來，可屏息諸緣，勿生一念。吾為汝說。』明良久。惠能云：『不思善，不思惡，正與麼時，那箇是明上座本來面目？』惠明言下大悟。復問云：『上來密語密意外，還更有密意否？』惠能云：『與汝說者，即非密也。汝若返照，密在汝邊。』明曰：『惠明雖在黃梅，實未省自己面目。今蒙指示，如人飲水，冷暖自知。今行者即惠明師也。』惠能曰：『汝若如是，吾與汝同師黃梅，善自護持。』明又問：『惠明今後向甚處去？』惠能曰：『逢袁則止，遇蒙則居。』明禮辭(明回至嶺下，謂趁眾曰：『向陟崔嵬，竟無蹤跡，當別道尋之。』趁眾鹹以為然。惠明後改道明，避師上字)。

"After taking leave of the Fifth Patriarch, I set out southward. Within two months I reached Dayu Ridge. (After the Fifth Patriarch returned, he did not take the hall for several days. The assembly grew suspicious and went to ask: 'Abbot, are you ill, or troubled?' The Fifth Patriarch said: 'Not ill. The robe and Dharma have gone south.' They asked: 'Who was it passed to?' He answered: 'The one named Neng has obtained it.' Only then did the assembly understand.) Several hundred people chased after me, wishing to seize the robe and bowl. A monk whose lay surname was Chen and whose name was Huiming, formerly a general of the fourth rank, rough by nature, was bent on the pursuit and ran ahead of the others, and caught up with me. I threw the robe and bowl down on a rock and said: 'This robe is a token of faith; can it be fought over by force?' Saying this, I hid myself in the grass. Huiming arrived and tried to lift the robe and bowl but could not move them, and called out: 'Lay worker! Lay worker! I came for the Dharma, not for the robe.' Then I came out and sat on a flat rock. Huiming bowed and said: 'I hope the lay worker will teach me the Dharma.' I said: 'Since you have come for the Dharma, you should put aside all outer conditions and not give rise to a single thought. I will explain it to you.' Huiming was silent for a long time. I said: 'Not thinking of good, not thinking of evil, at just this moment, what is your original face, Senior Ming?' Huiming was greatly awakened on the spot. He asked again: 'Besides the secret words and secret meaning just now, is there any other secret meaning?' I said: 'What can be spoken to you is not secret. If you turn the light around and look back, the secret is in you yourself.' Huiming said: 'Though Huiming was at Huangmei, I never in fact saw my own original face. Today, receiving your instruction, it is like a person drinking water, knowing for himself whether it is cold or warm. Now you, lay worker, are Huiming's teacher.' I said: 'If you say so, then you and I take Huangmei as our teacher together; take good care of it.' Huiming asked again: 'Where should Huiming go from here?' I said: 'When you meet "Yuan," stop; when you meet "Meng," settle.' Huiming bowed and took leave. (Huiming returned to the foot of the ridge and told the crowd that had come after: 'I searched the high steep mountains up there and there was no trace; you should look by another road.' The pursuers all thought so. Huiming later changed his name to Daoming, to avoid the first character of his teacher's name.)"

「惠能後至曹溪，又被惡人尋逐。乃於四會，避難獵人隊中，凡經一十五載，時與獵人隨宜說法。獵人常令守網，每見生命，盡放之。每至飯時，以菜寄煮肉鍋。或問，則對曰：『但吃肉邊菜。』

"Later I arrived at Caoxi, and was again hunted by evil people. So I took refuge around Sihui, mixing among a group of hunters, for fifteen years in all, from time to time teaching the Dharma to the hunters as occasion allowed. The hunters often had me watch the nets, and every time I saw a living creature I set it free. At every mealtime I put vegetables into the pot where meat was boiling and cooked them alongside it. If anyone asked, I answered: 'I only eat the vegetables beside the meat.'"

「一日思惟：『時當弘法，不可終遯。』遂出至廣州法性寺，值印宗法師講《涅槃經》。時有風吹旛動，一僧曰：『風動。』一僧曰：『旛動。』議論不已。惠能進曰：『不是風動，不是旛動，仁者心動。』一眾駭然。印宗延至上席，徵詰奧義。見惠能言簡理當，不由文字，宗云：『行者定非常人。久聞黃梅衣法南來，莫是行者否？』惠能曰：『不敢。』宗於是作禮，告請傳來衣缽出示大眾。宗復問曰：『黃梅付囑，如何指授？』惠能曰：『指授即無；惟論見性，不論禪定解脫。』宗曰：『何不論禪定解脫？』能曰：『為是二法，不是佛法。佛法是不二之法。』宗又問：『如何是佛法不二之法？』惠能曰：『法師講《涅槃經》，明佛性，是佛法不二之法。如高貴德王菩薩白佛言：「犯四重禁、作五逆罪，及一闡提等，當斷善根佛性否？」佛言：「善根有二：一者常，二者無常，佛性非常非無常，是故不斷，名為不二。一者善，二者不善，佛性非善非不善，是名不二。蘊之與界，凡夫見二，智者了達其性無二，無二之性即是佛性。」』印宗聞說，歡喜合掌，言：『某甲講經，猶如瓦礫；仁者論義，猶如真金。』於是為惠能剃髮，願事為師。惠能遂於菩提樹下，開東山法門。

"One day I thought: 'The time has come to spread the Dharma, and I cannot hide away forever.' So I came out to Faxing Monastery in Guangzhou, just as Dharma Master Yinzong was lecturing on the Nirvana Sutra. At that time wind was blowing the banner, and one monk said: 'The wind is moving.' Another said: 'The banner is moving.' They argued without end. I stepped forward and said: 'It is not the wind moving, it is not the banner moving; it is your minds that are moving.' Everyone present was astonished. Yinzong invited me to the upper seat and pressed me about the profound meaning. Seeing that my words were brief and the principle apt, not relying on writings, he said: 'The lay worker must be no ordinary person. I have long heard that the robe and Dharma of Huangmei had come south; might it be you?' I said: 'I do not dare claim it.' Yinzong then bowed and asked me to bring out the transmitted robe and bowl to show the assembly. Yinzong asked again: 'When Huangmei passed it on, how did he instruct and transmit?' I said: 'There was no instruction or transmission; he only spoke of seeing one's nature, and did not speak of meditation or liberation.' Yinzong said: 'Why did he not speak of meditation and liberation?' I said: 'Because those are two dharmas, and not the Buddha-Dharma. The Buddha-Dharma is the non-dual Dharma.' Yinzong asked again: 'What is the non-dual Dharma of the Buddha-Dharma?' I said: 'The Dharma Master lectures on the Nirvana Sutra and expounds Buddha-nature, which is itself the non-dual Dharma of the Buddha-Dharma. For example, the Bodhisattva Noble Virtue King asked the Buddha: "If one has violated the four grave prohibitions, committed the five heinous crimes, or is an icchantika and so on, will the roots of goodness and Buddha-nature be cut off?" The Buddha said: "There are two kinds of roots of goodness: one is constant, one is impermanent; Buddha-nature is neither constant nor impermanent, so it is not cut off, and this is called non-dual. One is good and one is not good; Buddha-nature is neither good nor not good, and this is called non-dual. The five aggregates and the eighteen realms, ordinary people see as two, but the wise understand their nature to be not two, and that non-dual nature is Buddha-nature."' Yinzong, hearing this, joyfully joined his palms and said: 'My lecturing on sutras is like rubble; the Venerable's discussion of meaning is like true gold.' Then he shaved my head, willing to take me as his teacher. And so beneath the bodhi tree I began to expound the Dharma Gate of East Mountain."

「惠能於東山得法，辛苦受盡，命似懸絲。今日得與使君、官僚、僧尼、道俗同此一會，莫非累劫之緣，亦是過去生中供養諸佛，同種善根，方始得聞如上頓教得法之因。教是先聖所傳，不是惠能自智。願聞先聖教者，各令淨心，聞了各自除疑，如先代聖人無別。」

"When I obtained the Dharma at Dongshan, I endured every hardship, and my life hung as if by a thread. That today I can gather in this assembly with the Prefect, the officials, monks, nuns, and laypeople is nothing but the result of causes and conditions through many kalpas, and also because in past lives we made offerings to the Buddhas and together planted good roots, so that we can hear the above account of how the sudden teaching was received. This teaching was transmitted by the sages of earlier generations; it is not Huineng's own cleverness. Those who wish to hear the teaching of the former sages, please each quiet your mind; after hearing it, each of you remove your doubts, and you will be no different from the sages of former times."

一眾聞法，歡喜作禮而退。

The whole assembly, having heard the Dharma, rejoiced, bowed, and withdrew.

次日，韋使君請益。師陞座，告大眾曰：「總淨心念摩訶般若波羅蜜多。」復云：「善知識！菩提般若之智，世人本自有之；只緣心迷，不能自悟，須假大善知識，示導見性。當知愚人智人，佛性本無差別，只緣迷悟不同，所以有愚有智。吾今為說摩訶般若波羅蜜法，使汝等各得智慧。志心諦聽！吾為汝說。善知識！世人終日口唸般若，不識自性般若，猶如說食不飽。口但說空，萬劫不得見性，終無有益。善知識！摩訶般若波羅蜜是梵語，此言大智慧到彼岸。此須心行，不在口唸。口唸心不行，如幻、如化、如露、如電；口唸心行，則心口相應，本性是佛，離性無別佛。何名摩訶？摩訶是大。心量廣大，猶如虛空，無有邊畔，亦無方圓大小，亦非青黃赤白，亦無上下長短，亦無瞋無喜，無是無非，無善無惡，無有頭尾。諸佛剎土，盡同虛空。世人妙性本空，無有一法可得。自性真空，亦復如是。善知識！莫聞吾說空，便即著空。第一莫著空，若空心靜坐，即著無記空。善知識！世界虛空，能含萬物色像，日月星宿，山河大地，泉源谿澗，草木叢林，惡人善人，惡法善法，天堂地獄，一切大海，須彌諸山，總在空中。世人性空，亦復如是。善知識！自性能含萬法是大，萬法在諸人性中。若見一切人、惡之與善，盡皆不取不捨亦不染著，心如虛空，名之為大，故曰摩訶。善知識！迷人口說，智者心行。又有迷人，空心靜坐，百無所思，自稱為大。此一輩人，不可與語，為邪見故。善知識！心量廣大，遍周法界，用即了了分明，應用便知一切。一切即一，一即一切。去來自由，心體無滯，即是般若。善知識！一切般若智，皆從自性而生，不從外入。莫錯用意，名為真性自用，一真一切真。心量大事，不行小道。口莫終日說空，心中不修此行，恰似凡人自稱國王，終不可得，非吾弟子。

The next day, Prefect Wei asked the Master to give further instruction. The Master ascended the seat and told the great assembly: "Everyone quiet your minds and recite 'Maha Prajna Paramita.'" He continued: "Good friends! The wisdom of bodhi and prajna is originally possessed by people of the world; it is only because the mind is deluded that they cannot awaken by themselves, and so they need the instruction and guidance of a great good teacher to see their nature. You should know that for the foolish and the wise, Buddha nature is originally not different; it is only because of the difference between delusion and awakening that there are the foolish and the wise. Today I will explain to you the Maha Prajna Paramita Dharma, so that each of you may obtain wisdom. Listen attentively! I will speak for you. Good friends! People of the world recite prajna all day long with their mouths, yet do not recognize the prajna in their own nature, just as merely speaking of food will not fill the stomach. Merely speaking of emptiness with the mouth, one will not see one's nature in ten thousand kalpas, and in the end there is no benefit. Good friends! 'Maha Prajna Paramita' is Sanskrit, and in Chinese it means 'great wisdom to reach the other shore.' This must be practiced with the mind, and not recited with the mouth. If recited with the mouth but not practiced in the mind, it is like an illusion, like a magical transformation, like dew, like lightning; if recited with the mouth and also practiced in the mind, then mind and mouth correspond, and one's original nature is the Buddha; apart from one's nature there is no other Buddha. What is 'Maha'? Maha means great. The capacity of the mind is vast and great, like space, without limit, and without squareness, roundness, size, blue, yellow, red, or white, without above or below, long or short, without anger or joy, without right or wrong, without good or evil, without head or tail. The lands of all the Buddhas are the same as space. The wondrous nature of people of the world is originally empty, with not a single dharma to be attained. The true emptiness of the self-nature is also like this. Good friends! Do not, on hearing me speak of emptiness, immediately cling to emptiness. The most important thing is not to cling to emptiness: if one sits in meditation with an empty mind, one falls into 'blank emptiness.' Good friends! The space of the world can contain the forms and images of the myriad things: the sun, moon, stars, mountains, rivers, great earth, springs, streams, grasses, trees, forests, evil people and good people, evil dharmas and good dharmas, heaven and hell, all the great seas, Mount Sumeru and all mountains, all are within space. The emptiness of people's nature is also like this. Good friends! Only when one's own nature can contain the myriad dharmas is it called great; the myriad dharmas are all within each person's own nature. If one sees all people, whether evil or good, and neither takes nor rejects them nor is stained by them, with a mind like space, this is called great, and therefore it is called Maha. Good friends! The deluded speak only with the mouth, while the wise practice in the mind. There is also a kind of deluded person who sits quietly with an empty mind, thinking of nothing, and calls this great. One must not speak with such people, because they have fallen into wrong views. Good friends! The capacity of the mind is vast and great, pervading the entire Dharma realm; when used, it is utterly clear and distinct, and applied everywhere it knows everything. All is one and one is all. Coming and going freely, with the substance of the mind unobstructed, this is prajna. Good friends! All prajna wisdom arises from one's own nature and does not come in from outside. Do not misuse your thoughts; this is called the true nature's own functioning, and if one is true, all is true. The capacity of the mind is a great matter; do not walk the small paths. Do not talk about emptiness all day with the mouth while in the mind not cultivating this practice; that is like an ordinary man calling himself king, which will never come to be, and such a person is not my disciple."

「善知識！何名般若？般若者，唐言智慧也。一切處所，一切時中，念念不愚，常行智慧，即是般若行。一念愚即般若絕，一念智即般若生。世人愚迷，不見般若，口說般若，心中常愚。常自言：『我修般若。』念念說空，不識真空。般若無形相，智慧心即是。若作如是解，即名般若智。何名波羅蜜？此是西國語，唐言到彼岸，解義離生滅。著境生滅起，如水有波浪，即名為此岸；離境無生滅，如水常通流，即名為彼岸，故號波羅蜜。善知識！迷人口唸，當念之時，有妄有非。念念若行，是名真性。悟此法者，是般若法；修此行者，是般若行。不修即凡；一念修行，自身等佛。善知識！凡夫即佛，煩惱即菩提。前念迷即凡夫，後念悟即佛。前念著境即煩惱，後念離境即菩提。

"Good friends! What is prajna? Prajna, in Chinese, is wisdom. In all places and at all times, being unconfused in every thought and constantly practicing wisdom is the practice of prajna. When one thought is foolish, prajna is cut off; when one thought is wise, prajna arises. Foolish and deluded people of the world cannot see prajna, and say prajna with their mouths while their minds are constantly foolish. They often say of themselves: 'I am cultivating prajna.' In every thought they speak of emptiness, yet they do not recognize true emptiness. Prajna has no form or mark; the mind that has wisdom is it. If one can understand this way, it is called prajna wisdom. What is paramita? This is a Western word; in Chinese it is 'to reach the other shore,' and to explain its meaning it is to be apart from birth and death. When one clings to external objects, birth and death arise, like water having waves; this is called this shore. When one is apart from external objects there is no birth and death, like water that always flows freely; this is called the other shore, and so it is called paramita. Good friends! The deluded recite only with the mouth, and at the moment of right mindfulness there is still falsity and fault. If one can practice in every thought, this is called true nature. One who awakens to this Dharma is the prajna Dharma; one who practices this practice is the prajna practice. Not practicing makes one an ordinary person; with one thought of practice, one's own self is equal to the Buddha. Good friends! Ordinary people are Buddhas, and afflictions are bodhi. A previous thought of delusion is an ordinary person; a following thought of awakening is a Buddha. A previous thought of attachment to external objects is affliction; a following thought of leaving external objects is bodhi.

「善知識！摩訶般若波羅蜜，最尊最上最第一，無住無往亦無來，三世諸佛從中出。當用大智慧，打破五蘊煩惱塵勞。如此修行，定成佛道，變三毒為戒定慧。善知識！我此法門，從一般若生八萬四千智慧。何以故？為世人有八萬四千塵勞。若無塵勞，智慧常現，不離自性。悟此法者，即是無念，無憶無著，不起誑妄。用自真如性，以智慧觀照，於一切法不取不捨，即是見性成佛道。善知識！若欲入甚深法界及般若三昧者，須修般若行，持誦《金剛般若經》，即得見性。當知此經功德無量無邊，經中分明讚歎，莫能具說。此法門是最上乘，為大智人說，為上根人說。小根小智人聞，心生不信。何以故？譬如大龍下雨於閻浮提，城邑聚落，悉皆漂流如漂棗葉。若雨大海，不增不減。若大乘人，若最上乘人，聞說《金剛經》，心開悟解。故知本性自有般若之智，自用智慧，常觀照故，不假文字。譬如雨水，不從天有，元是龍能興致，令一切眾生、一切草木、有情無情，悉皆蒙潤。百川眾流，卻入大海，合為一體。眾生本性般若之智，亦復如是。善知識！小根之人，聞此頓教，猶如草木根性小者，若被大雨，悉皆自倒，不能增長。小根之人，亦復如是。元有般若之智，與大智人更無差別，因何聞法不自開悟？緣邪見障重、煩惱根深。猶如大雲覆蓋於日，不得風吹，日光不現。般若之智亦無大小，為一切眾生自心迷悟不同，迷心外見，修行覓佛；未悟自性，即是小根。若開悟頓教，不能外修，但於自心常起正見，煩惱塵勞常不能染，即是見性。善知識！內外不住，去來自由，能除執心，通達無礙。能修此行，與般若經本無差別。

"Good friends! Maha Prajna Paramita is the most honored, the highest, the foremost; it does not abide, does not go, and does not come, and the Buddhas of the three times all come forth from it. One should use great wisdom to break through the afflictions and defilements of the five aggregates. Cultivating in this way, one will surely accomplish the Buddha Way, and transform the three poisons of greed, anger, and delusion into precepts, concentration, and wisdom. Good friends! In this Dharma gate of mine, from one prajna arise eighty-four thousand kinds of wisdom. Why? Because people of the world have eighty-four thousand kinds of defilement. If there were no defilements, wisdom would always be manifest and never leave one's nature. One who awakens to this Dharma has no-thought: no recollection, no attachment, and no arising of false deceptions and delusive thoughts. Using one's own true suchness nature and contemplating with wisdom, neither taking nor rejecting any dharma, this is the way of seeing nature and becoming a Buddha. Good friends! If you wish to enter the profound Dharma realm and the prajna samadhi, you must cultivate the prajna practice and hold and recite the Diamond Prajna Sutra, and you will see your nature. You should know that the merit of this sutra is immeasurable and boundless, as the sutra itself says clearly, and it cannot be fully told. This Dharma gate is the highest vehicle, spoken for those of great wisdom and for those of superior capacity. Those of small capacity and small wisdom do not believe it in their hearts on hearing it. Why? Suppose a great dragon sends rain over Jambudvipa: cities and villages are all washed away by the flood like floating date leaves; but if the rain falls on the great ocean, the sea neither increases nor decreases. If one is a person of the Great Vehicle or the highest vehicle, on hearing the Diamond Sutra expounded, the mind opens and understands. Thus one knows that one's own nature has its own wisdom of prajna, and one uses that wisdom to illuminate constantly, without needing to rely on written words. It is like the rainwater, which does not come out of nothing from the sky, but is originally something the dragon is able to raise, so that all beings, all grasses and trees, sentient and insentient, receive its moisture. The hundred rivers and streams flow back into the great ocean and merge into one body. The wisdom of prajna in the original nature of beings is like this. Good friends! When people of small capacity hear this sudden teaching, they are like grasses and trees of weak root, who, drenched by a heavy rain, all fall down and cannot grow. People of small capacity are like this. They originally have the wisdom of prajna and are no different from people of great wisdom; why then, on hearing the Dharma, can they not awaken by themselves? It is because the obstruction of wrong views is heavy and the roots of affliction are deep. It is like a great mass of dark clouds covering the sun; without wind to blow them away, the sunlight cannot appear. The wisdom of prajna itself has no big or small, only the delusion or awakening of each being's own mind differs: a deluded person looks outward and practices by seeking a Buddha, not yet awakened to his own nature, and this is small capacity. If one awakens to the sudden teaching, one does not practice outwardly but only constantly gives rise to right view in one's own mind, so that afflictions and defilements can never stain him; this is seeing the nature. Good friends! Neither inside nor outside clinging nor abiding, coming and going freely, able to remove the clinging mind, penetrating without obstruction: one who can practice this is not different at all from the Prajna Sutra."

「善知識！一切修多羅及諸文字，大小二乘，十二部經，皆因人置。因智慧性，方能建立。若無世人，一切萬法本自不有，故知萬法本自人興。一切經書，因人說有。緣其人中有愚有智，愚為小人，智為大人。愚者問於智人，智者與愚人說法。愚人忽然悟解心開，即與智人無別。善知識！不悟即佛是眾生，一念悟時眾生是佛，故知萬法盡在自心。何不從自心中，頓見真如本性？《菩薩戒經》云：『我本元自性清淨，若識自心見性，皆成佛道。』《淨名經》云：『即時豁然，還得本心。』善知識！我於忍和尚處，一聞言下便悟，頓見真如本性。是以將此教法流行，令學道者頓悟菩提。各自觀心，自見本性。若自不悟，須覓大善知識、解最上乘法者，直示正路。是善知識有大因緣，所謂化導令得見性。一切善法，因善知識能發起故。三世諸佛、十二部經，在人性中本自具有。不能自悟，須求善知識指示方見；若自悟者，不假外求。若一向執謂須他善知識方得解脫者，無有是處。何以故？自心內有知識自悟。若起邪迷、妄念顛倒，外善知識雖有教授，救不可得。若起正真般若觀照，一剎那間，妄念俱滅。若識自性，一悟即至佛地。善知識！智慧觀照，內外明徹，識自本心。若識本心，即本解脫。若得解脫，即是般若三昧，即是無念。何名無念？若見一切法，心不染著，是為無念。用即遍一切處，亦不著一切處。但淨本心，使六識出六門，於六塵中無染無雜，來去自由，通用無滯，即是般若三昧、自在解脫，名無念行。若百物不思，當令念絕，即是法縛，即名邊見。善知識！悟無念法者，萬法盡通；悟無念法者，見諸佛境界；悟無念法者，至佛地位。

"Good friends! All the scriptures and all kinds of writings, the Great Vehicle and the Small Vehicle, the twelve divisions of the canon, are all established because of people. Because there is the nature of wisdom, they could be established. If there were no people in the world, the myriad dharmas would not originally exist, so one knows that the myriad dharmas are originally raised up by people. All the sutras and books exist because they were spoken for people. Because among people there are the foolish and the wise, the foolish are small people and the wise are great people. The foolish ask the wise, and the wise explain the Dharma for the foolish. When the foolish suddenly awaken and understand, and their mind opens up, they are no different from the wise. Good friends! When not awakened, the Buddha is a being; when awakened in a single thought, a being is the Buddha; therefore know that the myriad dharmas are all in one's own mind. Why not, from within one's own mind, directly see the true suchness nature? The Bodhisattva Precepts Sutra says: 'My original self-nature is pure; if one recognizes one's mind and sees one's nature, all can accomplish the Buddha Way.' The Vimalakirti Sutra says: 'Instantly and suddenly clear and open, one regains one's original mind.' Good friends! When I was with Master Hongren, I awakened at once on hearing his words, and in a flash saw the true suchness nature. Therefore I want to spread this teaching so that students of the Way suddenly awaken to bodhi. Let each contemplate their own mind and see their own nature. If you cannot awaken by yourself, you must seek a great good teacher, one who understands the highest vehicle Dharma, who will directly point out the correct road. Such a good teacher has great causes and conditions, in the sense that he teaches and guides so that people can see their nature. All good dharmas can be aroused only through good teachers. The Buddhas of the three times and the twelve divisions of the canon are originally complete within people's own nature. If you cannot awaken by yourself, you must seek a good teacher to point it out before you can see; if you can awaken by yourself, there is no need to seek outside. To cling to the idea that one must rely on another good teacher to attain liberation is impossible. Why? Because within one's own mind there is the knowledge that can awaken by itself. If one gives rise to wrongful delusion, false thoughts, and inversion, then even though outside good teachers give instruction, they cannot save you. If one can give rise to true prajna contemplation, in an instant false thoughts are all extinguished. If one recognizes one's nature, one awakens and reaches the Buddha ground. Good friends! Illuminating with wisdom, inside and outside clear and penetrating, one knows one's original mind. If one knows one's original mind, that is original liberation. If one gains liberation, that is prajna samadhi, that is no-thought. What is no-thought? If one sees all dharmas without the mind being stained or attached, that is no-thought. In its use it pervades all places yet is not attached to any place. One simply purifies the original mind and lets the six consciousnesses go out through the six gates, neither stained nor mixed among the six sense objects, coming and going freely, functioning without obstruction; this is prajna samadhi, free liberation, called the practice of no-thought. If one thinks of nothing and forcibly cuts off thoughts, that is being bound by a dharma, and is called a one-sided view. Good friends! One who awakens to the Dharma of no-thought penetrates all dharmas; one who awakens to the Dharma of no-thought sees the realm of the Buddhas; one who awakens to the Dharma of no-thought reaches the rank of a Buddha."

「善知識！後代得吾法者，將此頓教法門，於同見同行，發願受持。如事佛故，終身而不退者，定入聖位。然須傳授從上以來默傳分付，不得匿其正法。若不同見同行，在別法中，不得傳付。損彼前人，究竟無益。恐愚人不解，謗此法門，百劫千生，斷佛種性。善知識！吾有一無相頌，各須誦取，在家出家，但依此修。若不自修，惟記吾言，亦無有益。聽吾頌曰：

"Good friends! Those in later generations who obtain this Dharma of mine should, among those with the same view and the same practice, vow to receive and uphold this sudden teaching Dharma gate. Serving it as one serves the Buddha, those who do not retreat for life will surely enter the sage's rank. But one must transmit the entrustment silently handed down through the generations, and must not hide the right Dharma. If their views and practice differ and they are in other Dharma gates, do not transmit it to them. That would harm them and in the end bring no benefit. I fear only that the foolish will not understand and will slander this Dharma gate, cutting off the Buddha seed for a hundred kalpas and a thousand lives. Good friends! I have a 'Verse of Formlessness' that all of you should recite; lay people and monastics should practice by this alone. If you do not practice it yourself and merely remember my words, there is no use. Listen as I recite this verse:

「說通及心通，如日處虛空，

When the teaching is penetrating, the mind-ground also penetrates, like the sun hanging in space;

唯傳見性法，出世破邪宗。

Only the one Dharma of seeing nature is transmitted, appearing in the world to destroy heretical schools.

法即無頓漸，迷悟有遲疾，

The Dharma itself has no distinction of sudden or gradual; it is only that people's delusion and awakening are fast or slow;

只此見性門，愚人不可悉。

This one Dharma gate of seeing nature alone cannot be fully understood by the foolish.

說即雖萬般，合理還歸一，

Though teachings number thousands and myriads, in accord with principle they all return to one;

煩惱闇宅中，常須生慧日。

In the dark room of affliction, one must constantly raise the sun of wisdom.

邪來煩惱至，正來煩惱除，

When a wrong thought comes, affliction arrives; when a right thought comes, affliction is removed;

邪正俱不用，清淨至無餘。

When neither wrong nor right is any longer needed, purity reaches its extreme, with nothing left over.

菩提本自性，起心即是妄，

Bodhi is originally the self-nature, and stirring a thought to seek it is already falsity;

淨心在妄中，但正無三障。

The pure mind is within the false thoughts; if only one holds to the right, there are no obstacles of affliction, karma, and retribution.

世人若修道，一切盡不妨，

If people of the world truly cultivate the Way, nothing they do hinders it;

常自見己過，與道即相當。

Constantly seeing one's own faults, one is in accord with the Way.

色類自有道，各不相妨惱，

All beings with form each have their own way and do not hinder or disturb one another;

離道別覓道，終身不見道。

Leaving the Way of one's own body to look for another way, one will never see the Way in a lifetime.

波波度一生，到頭還自懊，

Hurrying and toiling through a lifetime, in the end one only regrets it oneself;

欲得見真道，行正即是道。

If you want to see the true Way, upright conduct is the Way.

自若無道心，闇行不見道，

If one has no heart for seeking the Way, one is walking blind in the dark and cannot see the Way;

若真修道人，不見世間過。

A person who truly cultivates the Way does not look at the faults of the world.

若見他人非，自非卻是左，

If one always looks at the wrongs of others, one's own "wrong" is what is crooked;

他非我不非，我非自有過。

If others are wrong, I do not follow them in being wrong; if I too am wrong, then I myself have a fault.

但自卻非心，打除煩惱破，

Only get rid of your own mind that loves to find fault, and affliction is broken;

憎愛不關心，長伸兩腳臥。

With neither hatred nor love hanging on the mind, you may stretch out both legs and lie down at ease.

欲擬化他人，自須有方便，

If you want to teach and transform others, you yourself must have skillful means;

勿令彼有疑，即是自性現。

Do not let the other person give rise to doubt, and then the self-nature is manifest.

佛法在世間，不離世間覺，

The Buddha Dharma is in the world, and awakening is not apart from the world;

離世覓菩提，恰如求兔角。

To leave the world and look for bodhi is like seeking horns on a rabbit's head.

正見名出世，邪見是世間，

Right view is called transcending the world, and wrong view is the world;

邪正盡打卻，菩提性宛然。

When wrong and right are both struck down, the nature of bodhi naturally appears clearly before you.

此頌是頓教，亦名大法船，

This verse is the sudden teaching, also called the great Dharma boat;

迷聞經累劫，悟則剎那間。」

The deluded who hear it must pass through many kalpas, while the awakened are there in an instant."

師復曰：「今於大梵寺說此頓教，普願法界眾生，言下見性成佛。」

The Master added: "Today, in teaching this sudden teaching at Dafan Temple, I universally wish that all beings of the Dharma realm see their nature and become Buddhas upon hearing these words."

時韋使君與官僚道俗，聞師所說，無不省悟。一時作禮，皆歎：「善哉！何期嶺南有佛出世！」

At that time, Prefect Wei, the officials, and the laypeople, hearing what the Master said, all awakened. They bowed together and all praised: "Wonderful! We never expected that a Buddha would appear in Lingnan!"

一日，韋刺史為師設大會齋。齋訖，刺史請師陞座，同官僚士庶肅容再拜，問曰：「弟子聞和尚說法，實不可思議。今有少疑，願大慈悲，特為解說。」

One day, Prefect Wei prepared a grand vegetarian feast for the Master. When the meal was over, the Prefect invited the Master to ascend the seat, and with the officials, scholars, and common people he solemnly bowed again and asked: "Hearing the Venerable teach the Dharma, I find it truly inconceivable. Now I have a small doubt, and I wish the Venerable, with great compassion, would explain it specially."

師曰：「有疑即問，吾當為說。」

The Master said: "If you have a doubt, ask; I will explain it for you."

韋公曰：「和尚所說，可不是達磨大師宗旨乎？」

Lord Wei said: "What the Venerable teaches, is it not the doctrine of the Great Master Bodhidharma?"

師曰：「是。」

The Master said: "Yes."

公曰：「弟子聞：達磨初化梁武帝，帝問云：『朕一生造寺度僧、佈施設齋，有何功德？』達磨言：『實無功德。』弟子未達此理，願和尚為說。」

Lord Wei said: "I have heard that when Bodhidharma first taught Emperor Wu of Liang, the Emperor asked: 'All my life I have built temples, ordained people, given alms, and held vegetarian feasts; what merit is there in this?' Bodhidharma said: 'In truth, there is no merit.' I do not understand this principle, and wish the Venerable to explain it for me."

師曰：「實無功德，勿疑先聖之言。武帝心邪，不知正法。造寺度僧、佈施設齋，名為求福，不可將福便為功德。功德在法身中，不在修福。」師又曰：「見性是功，平等是德。念念無滯，常見本性，真實妙用，名為功德。內心謙下是功，外行於禮是德。自性建立萬法是功，心體離念是德。不離自性是功，應用無染是德。若覓功德法身，但依此作，是真功德。若修功德之人，心即不輕，常行普敬。心常輕人，吾我不斷，即自無功；自性虛妄不實，即自無德。為吾我自大，常輕一切故。善知識！念念無間是功，心行平直是德。自修性是功，自修身是德。善知識！功德須自性內見，不是佈施供養之所求也。是以福德與功德別。武帝不識真理，非我祖師有過。」

The Master said: "Indeed there is no merit; do not doubt the words of the former sage. Emperor Wu's mind held bias and wrongness, and he did not understand the right Dharma. Building temples, ordaining people, giving alms, and holding vegetarian feasts is called seeking blessings; one must not take blessings to be merit. Merit lies within the Dharma body, not in cultivating blessings." The Master continued: "Seeing one's nature is gong (achievement), and equality is de (virtue). To be unobstructed in every thought and constantly see one's original nature, with true and wondrous function, this is called merit. Inwardly being humble is gong, and outwardly conducting oneself in accord with ritual is de. The self-nature establishing the myriad dharmas is gong, and the mind's substance being free from thought is de. Not leaving one's own nature is gong, and functioning without being stained is de. If one seeks the merit of the Dharma body, one has only to act according to this, and that is true merit. One who cultivates merit does not belittle others in his heart, and always shows reverence to all. If one in his heart constantly belittles others, the attachment to 'self' is not cut off, and one has no gong; the self-nature is false and unreal, and one has no de, because of self-importance and constantly looking down on everyone. Good friends! Unbroken continuity of thoughts is gong, and a level and straight mind-ground is de. Cultivating one's own nature is gong, and cultivating oneself is de. Good friends! Merit must be seen within the self-nature; it is not obtained by giving alms and making offerings. Therefore there is a difference between blessings and merit. It was Emperor Wu who did not recognize the truth; it was not our patriarch who was at fault."

刺史又問曰：「弟子常見僧俗念阿彌陀佛，願生西方。請和尚說，得生彼否？願為破疑。」

The Prefect asked further: "I often see monks and laypeople reciting Amitabha Buddha and vowing to be reborn in the Western Pure Land. Please tell us, Venerable, can they be reborn there? I wish you would dispel my doubt."

師言：「使君善聽，惠能與說。世尊在舍衛城中，說西方引化。經文分明，去此不遠。若論相說，裡數有十萬八千，即身中十惡八邪，便是說遠。說遠為其下根，說近為其上智。人有兩種，法無兩般。迷悟有殊，見有遲疾。迷人念佛求生於彼，悟人自淨其心。所以佛言：『隨其心淨即佛土淨。』使君東方人，但心淨即無罪。雖西方人，心不淨亦有愆。東方人造罪，念佛求生西方。西方人造罪，念佛求生何國？凡愚不了自性，不識身中淨土，願東願西。悟人在處一般，所以佛言：『隨所住處恆安樂。』使君心地但無不善，西方去此不遙。若懷不善之心，念佛往生難到。今勸善知識，先除十惡即行十萬，後除八邪乃過八千。念念見性，常行平直，到如彈指，便覩彌陀。使君但行十善，何須更願往生？不斷十惡之心，何佛即來迎請？若悟無生頓法，見西方只在剎那。不悟念佛求生，路遙如何得達。惠能與諸人，移西方於剎那間，目前便見。各願見否？」

The Master said: "Prefect, listen well, and Huineng will explain it for you. In the city of Shravasti, the World-Honored One spoke of the Western Pure Land to guide and teach; the sutra text is clear, and it is not far from here. If speaking in terms of appearances, the distance is one hundred eight thousand li, which exactly refers to the ten evils and eight wrong paths in the human body, and so it is said to be far. Saying it is far is spoken for those of inferior capacity, and saying it is near is spoken for those of superior wisdom. There are two kinds of people, but the Dharma is not two. Delusion and awakening differ, and seeing one's nature is quick or slow. The deluded recite the Buddha's name seeking rebirth over there; the awakened purify their own minds themselves. Therefore the Buddha said: 'As their minds are pure, the Buddha land is pure.' Prefect, you are an easterner; if only your mind is pure, you have no offense. Although one may be a westerner, if the mind is not pure there is still fault. Easterners who create offenses recite the Buddha's name seeking rebirth in the West; westerners who create offenses, reciting the Buddha's name, seek rebirth in which land? Ordinary and foolish people do not penetrate their own nature and do not recognize the Pure Land in their own bodies, wishing now for east and now for west. For the awakened, it is the same wherever they are; therefore the Buddha said: 'Wherever one dwells, one is constantly at peace and joyful.' Prefect, if only your mind-ground has nothing unwholesome, the West is not far from here. If one holds an unwholesome mind, even reciting the Buddha's name it will be hard to reach rebirth. Now I urge all you good friends: first remove the ten evils, and that is like traveling a hundred thousand li; then remove the eight wrong paths, and that is like passing eight thousand li. With every thought seeing your nature and constantly practicing evenness and straightness, you arrive as fast as a snap of the fingers and see Amitabha at once. Prefect, if you only practice the ten good deeds, why must you still vow to be reborn? If you do not cut off the mind of the ten evils, which Buddha would come to receive you? If you awaken to the sudden Dharma of non-birth, you see the West in an instant; if you do not awaken and merely recite the Buddha's name seeking rebirth, how can you reach it when the road is so long? For all of you, Huineng will move the West here in an instant, right before your eyes; would you like to see it?"

眾皆頂禮云：「若此處見，何須更願往生？願和尚慈悲，便現西方，普令得見。」

The whole assembly bowed and said: "If it can be seen here, why must one still vow to be reborn there? We wish the Venerable, out of compassion, would make the West appear so that everyone can see it."

師言：「大眾！世人自色身是城，眼耳鼻舌是門，外有五門，內有意門。心是地，性是王。王居心地上，性在王在，性去王無。性在身心存，性去身壞。佛向性中作，莫向身外求。自性迷即是眾生，自性覺即是佛。慈悲即是觀音，喜捨名為勢至，能淨即釋迦，平直即彌陀；人我是須彌，貪欲是海水，煩惱是波浪，毒害是惡龍，虛妄是鬼神，塵勞是魚鱉。貪瞋是地獄，愚痴是畜生。善知識！常行十善，天堂便至。除人我，須彌倒；去貪欲，海水竭；煩惱無，波浪滅；毒害除，魚龍絕。自心地上覺性，如來放大光明；外照六門清淨，能破六慾諸天；自性內照，三毒即除；地獄等罪一時銷滅，內外明徹不異西方。不作此修，如何到彼？」

The Master said: "Assembly! The physical body of people of the world is itself a city; the eyes, ears, nose, and tongue are the city gates; outside there are five gates, and inside there is one gate of mind. The mind is the ground, and the nature is the king. The king lives on the mind-ground; when the nature is present the king is present, and when the nature leaves the king is gone. When the nature is present, body and mind remain; when the nature leaves, the body decays. The Buddha is to be made within one's own nature, not sought outside the body. When the self-nature is deluded, one is a being; when the self-nature is awakened, one is a Buddha. Compassion is Avalokiteshvara, joy and giving are called Mahasthamaprapta, being able to be pure is Shakyamuni, and evenness and straightness is Amitabha; the view of self and others is Mount Sumeru, greed is the ocean water, affliction is the waves, poisonous harm is the evil dragon, falsity is ghosts and spirits, defilement is fish and turtles, greed and anger are hell, and ignorance is the animal realm. Good friends! Constantly practice the ten good deeds, and heaven arrives. Remove the view of self and others, and Mount Sumeru collapses; remove greed, and the ocean dries up; when affliction is gone, the waves subside; when poisonous harm is removed, fish and dragons vanish. The awakened nature on one's own mind-ground is the Tathagata emitting great light; shining outward it purifies the six gates and can break the six desire heavens; shining inward on oneself, the three poisons are removed at once; the offenses of hell and the like are all extinguished at once, and inside and outside are bright and clear, no different from the West. If one does not cultivate in this way, how can one reach there?"

大眾聞說，瞭然見性，悉皆禮拜，俱歎善哉。唱言：「普願法界眾生，聞者一時悟解。」

The assembly, hearing these words, saw their nature clearly, and all came forward to bow and praised it together in one voice, chanting: "We universally wish that all beings of the Dharma realm who hear this will awaken on the spot."

師言：「善知識！若欲修行，在家亦得，不由在寺。在家能行，如東方人心善；在寺不修，如西方人心惡。但心清淨，即是自性西方。」

The Master said: "Good friends! If you wish to practice, you can do so at home; it need not be in a monastery. If one can practice at home, it is like an easterner whose mind is good; if one is in a monastery but does not practice, it is like a westerner whose mind is evil. As long as the mind is pure, that is the West of one's own nature."

韋公又問：「在家如何修行？願為教授。」

Lord Wei asked again: "How should one practice at home? I hope you will teach me."

師言：「吾與大眾說無相頌。但依此修，常與吾同處無別；若不依此修，剃髮出家於道何益？頌曰：

The Master said: "I will speak a verse of formlessness for the assembly. If you only practice according to this, you will always be in the same place as me, with no separation; if you do not practice according to this, what benefit to the Way is there in shaving your head and leaving home? The verse says:

「心平何勞持戒，行直何用修禪！

If the mind is level, why labor to keep the precepts? If conduct is upright, why practice meditation again!

恩則孝養父母，義則上下相憐，

In speaking of kindness, one is filial and cares for parents; in speaking of righteousness, high and low are considerate of each other;

讓則尊卑和睦，忍則眾惡無諠，

In speaking of yielding, honored and humble are harmonious; in speaking of forbearance, many evils cannot arise.

若能鑽木出火，淤泥定生紅蓮。

If one can work as one does to drill wood for fire, red lotuses will surely grow from the mud.

苦口的是良藥，逆耳必是忠言，

What is bitter to the mouth is good medicine, and what grates on the ear must be loyal advice;

改過必生智慧，護短心內非賢。

Correcting faults will surely give rise to wisdom, and if one shields one's own shortcomings, in one's heart one is not a worthy person.

日用常行饒益，成道非由施錢，

In daily life, constantly do what benefits others; the Way is not attained by giving away wealth;

菩提只向心覓，何勞向外求玄。

Bodhi should be sought only within the mind; why labor to seek some mystery outside?

聽說依此修行，西方只在目前。」

On hearing these words, practice accordingly, and the Western Pure Land is right before your eyes."

師復曰：「善知識！總須依偈修行，見取自性，直成佛道。時不相待，眾人且散，吾歸曹溪。眾若有疑，卻來相問。」

The Master added: "Good friends! Everyone should practice according to this verse, see and take hold of your own nature, and directly accomplish the Buddha Way. Time does not wait for anyone; let the assembly now disperse, for I am returning to Caoxi. If any of you have doubts, come and ask me again."

時，刺史官僚、在會善男信女，各得開悟，信受奉行。

At that time the Prefect, the officials, and the faithful men and women present each attained awakening, and believed, accepted, and practiced.

師示眾云：「善知識！我此法門，以定慧為本。大眾！勿迷，言定慧別。定慧一體，不是二。定是慧體，慧是定用。即慧之時定在慧，即定之時慧在定。若識此義，即是定慧等學。諸學道人，莫言先定發慧、先慧發定各別。作此見者，法有二相。口說善語，心中不善。空有定慧，定慧不等。若心口俱善、內外一如，定慧即等。自悟修行，不在於諍。若諍先後，即同迷人，不斷勝負，卻增我法，不離四相。善知識！定慧猶如何等？猶如燈光。有燈即光，無燈即闇。燈是光之體，光是燈之用；名雖有二，體本同一。此定慧法，亦復如是。」

The Master instructed the assembly: "Good friends! This Dharma gate of mine takes concentration and wisdom as its root. Assembly! Do not be confused and say that concentration and wisdom are two different things. Concentration and wisdom are one substance, not two. Concentration is the substance of wisdom, and wisdom is the function of concentration. At the very moment of wisdom, concentration is within wisdom; at the very moment of concentration, wisdom is within concentration. If you understand this meaning, you study concentration and wisdom equally. All you students of the Way, do not say that concentration comes first and then gives rise to wisdom, or wisdom comes first and then gives rise to concentration, separating the two. People who hold this view treat the Dharma as having two aspects. Speaking good words with the mouth while the mind is not good, they have only the name of concentration and wisdom, and concentration and wisdom are not equal. If mind and mouth are both good, and inner and outer are one, then concentration and wisdom are equal. One's own awakening and practice do not lie in debate. If you argue over which comes first, you are no different from the deluded, with the mind of winning and losing unbroken, and you only increase attachment to 'self' and 'dharma', and cannot leave the notion of a self, a person, a being, and a lifespan. Good friends! What are concentration and wisdom like? They are like a lamp and its light. With the lamp there is light, and without the lamp there is darkness. The lamp is the substance of the light, and the light is the function of the lamp; though there are two names, the substance is originally one. This Dharma of concentration and wisdom is also like this."

師示眾云：「善知識！一行三昧者，於一切處行住坐臥，常行一直心是也。《淨名》云：『直心是道場，直心是淨土。』莫心行諂曲，口但說直；口說一行三昧，不行直心。但行直心，於一切法勿有執著。迷人著法相、執一行三昧，直言：『常坐不動，妄不起心，即是一行三昧。』作此解者，即同無情，卻是障道因緣。善知識！道須通流，何以卻滯？心不住法，道即通流；心若住法；名為自縛。若言常坐不動是，只如舍利弗宴坐林中，卻被維摩詰訶。善知識！又有人教坐，看心觀靜，不動不起，從此置功。迷人不會，便執成顛。如此者眾，如是相教，故知大錯。」

The Master instructed the assembly: "Good friends! What is called the samadhi of one practice is, in all places, in walking, standing, sitting, and lying, constantly practicing a single straight mind. The Vimalakirti Sutra says: 'The straight mind is the site of the Way, the straight mind is the Pure Land.' Do not practice deceit and crookedness in the mind while only saying 'straight' with the mouth; do not speak of the samadhi of one practice with the mouth while not practicing the straight mind. Only practice the straight mind, and have no attachment to any dharma. The deluded cling to the marks of dharmas and rigidly hold onto the samadhi of one practice, insisting: 'To sit constantly without moving and not give rise to a false mind is the samadhi of one practice.' One who understands in this way is equal to an insentient thing, and it becomes instead a cause and condition for obstructing the Way. Good friends! The Way must flow freely; why instead block it? When the mind does not dwell on dharmas, the Way flows freely; if the mind dwells on a dharma, that is called binding oneself. If it were right to say that sitting constantly without moving is correct, then Shariputra, sitting quietly in the forest, would not have been rebuked by Vimalakirti. Good friends! There are also those who teach people to sit in meditation, watching the mind, contemplating stillness, neither moving nor stirring, and making effort from this. The deluded do not understand, and cling to it until it becomes an inversion. There are many such people, and they transmit it to each other this way; know that this is a great error."

師示眾云：「善知識！本來正教，無有頓漸，人性自有利鈍。迷人漸修，悟人頓契。自識本心，自見本性，即無差別，所以立頓漸之假名。善知識！我此法門，從上以來，先立無念為宗，無相為體，無住為本。無相者，於相而離相。無念者，於念而無念。無住者，人之本性。於世間善惡好醜，乃至冤之與親，言語觸刺欺爭之時，並將為空，不思酬害，念念之中不思前境。若前念今念後念，念念相續不斷，名為繫縛。於諸法上念念不住，即無縛也。此是以無住為本。善知識！外離一切相，名為無相。能離於相，即法體清淨。此是以無相為體。善知識！於諸境上，心不染，曰無念。於自念上，常離諸境，不於境上生心。若只百物不思，念盡除卻，一念絕即死，別處受生，是為大錯。學道者思之。若不識法意，自錯猶可，更誤他人；自迷不見，又謗佛經，所以立無念為宗。善知識！云何立無念為宗？只緣口說見性，迷人於境上有念，念上便起邪見，一切塵勞妄想從此而生。自性本無一法可得，若有所得，妄說禍福，即是塵勞邪見，故此法門立無念為宗。善知識！無者無何事？念者念何物？無者無二相，無諸塵勞之心。念者念真如本性。真如即是念之體，念即是真如之用。真如自性起念，非眼耳鼻舌能念。真如有性，所以起念；真如若無，眼耳色聲當時即壞。善知識！真如自性起念，六根雖有見聞覺知，不染萬境，而真性常自在。故經云：『能善分別諸法相，於第一義而不動。』」

The Master instructed the assembly: "Good friends! In the originally correct teaching there is no sudden or gradual; it is only that people's natures are sharp or dull. The deluded cultivate gradually, and the awakened enter suddenly. When one recognizes one's own original mind and sees one's own nature, there is no difference; therefore sudden and gradual are only provisional names. Good friends! In this Dharma gate of mine, from former generations onward, we have first established no-thought as the tenet, no-form as the substance, and no-abiding as the root. What is called no-form is to be in forms yet apart from forms. What is called no-thought is to be amid thoughts yet without thought. What is called no-abiding is the original nature of people. Toward the good and evil, beauty and ugliness of the world, and even toward enemies and relatives, when there are collisions of words, insults, or quarrels, one regards them all as empty and does not think of retaliation; in every thought, one does not think of previous circumstances. If a previous thought, the present thought, and a following thought continue one after another without cutting off, this is called bondage; if one does not dwell in any dharma from thought to thought, one has no bondage. This is taking no-abiding as the root. Good friends! Outwardly leaving all forms is called no-form. When one can leave forms, the substance of the Dharma is pure. This is taking no-form as the substance. Good friends! Toward all kinds of circumstances, the mind not being stained is called no-thought. Within one's own thoughts, always being apart from all kinds of circumstances and not giving rise to mind on circumstances. If one merely thinks of nothing and removes all thoughts, then when one thought is cut off one dies and must be reborn elsewhere; that is a great error. Students of the Way should think this over well. If one does not recognize the meaning of the Dharma, it is bad enough to be wrong oneself, but one also misleads others; being deluded oneself and not seeing, one also slanders the Buddha's scriptures, and so no-thought is established as the tenet. Good friends! Why establish no-thought as the tenet? Only because there are people who say with the mouth that they see their nature, while the deluded have thoughts about circumstances, and wrong views arise from the thoughts, and all defilements and false thoughts are born from this. The self-nature originally has not a single dharma to be attained; if one thinks one has attained something and speaks wildly of fortune and misfortune, that is defilement and wrong view, and so this Dharma gate establishes no-thought as its tenet. Good friends! 'No' is no what? 'Thought' is thinking of what thing? 'No' is no two opposing marks, no mind of various defilements. 'Thought' is thinking of the true suchness nature. True suchness is the substance of thought, and thought is the function of true suchness. The true suchness self-nature gives rise to thought; it is not the eye, ear, nose, or tongue that can think. Because true suchness has a nature, it can give rise to thought; if true suchness were absent, the eyes and ears and forms and sounds would at once be destroyed. Good friends! When the true suchness self-nature gives rise to thought, though the six sense faculties see, hear, feel, and know, they are not stained by the myriad kinds of circumstances, and the true nature is constantly free. Therefore the sutra says: 'One can skillfully distinguish the marks of all dharmas, while remaining unmoved in the first principle.'"

師示眾云：「此門坐禪，元不著心，亦不著淨，亦不是不動。若言著心，心元是妄，知心如幻，故無所著也。若言著淨，人性本淨，由妄念故，蓋覆真如。但無妄想，性自清淨；起心著淨，卻生淨妄。妄無處所，著者是妄。淨無形相，卻立淨相，言是工夫。作此見者，障自本性，卻被淨縛。善知識！若修不動者，但見一切人時，不見人之是非善惡過患，即是自性不動。善知識！迷人身雖不動！開口便說他人是非長短好惡，與道違背。若著心著淨，即障道也。」

The Master instructed the assembly: "In the seated meditation of this Dharma gate, one is originally not attached to the mind, not attached to purity, and also not unmoving. If one speaks of attachment to the mind, the mind is originally false; knowing that the mind is like an illusion, there is nothing to be attached to. If one speaks of attachment to purity, people's nature is originally pure, and it is only because of false thoughts that true suchness is covered. As long as there are no false thoughts, the nature is naturally pure; if one gives rise to the mind of clinging to purity, one only produces a falseness of 'purity.' Falseness has no place; that which clings is the falseness. Purity has no form, yet one insists on establishing a mark of purity and calls it effort. One who holds this view obstructs his own nature and is instead bound by 'purity.' Good friends! If one cultivates unmoving, it is that when seeing all people, one does not look at their rights and wrongs, good and evil, or faults; this is the self-nature being unmoving. Good friends! The deluded, though their bodies do not move, as soon as they open their mouths speak of the rights and wrongs, strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes of others, and that directly contradicts the Way. If one clings to the mind or clings to purity, that is obstructing the Way."

師示眾云：「善知識！何名坐禪？此法門中，無障無礙，外於一切善惡境界，心念不起，名為坐；內見自性不動，名為禪。善知識！何名禪定？外離相為禪，內不亂為定。外若著相，內心即亂；外若離相，心即不亂。本性自淨自定，只為見境，思境即亂。若見諸境心不亂者，是真定也。善知識！外離相即禪，內不亂即定。外禪內定，是為禪定。《菩薩戒經》云：『我本元自性清淨。』善知識！於念念中，自見本性清淨，自修自行，自成佛道。」

The Master instructed the assembly: "Good friends! What is seated meditation? In this Dharma gate, there is neither hindrance nor obstruction: toward all outward good and evil circumstances, the mind giving rise to no thoughts is called sitting; inwardly seeing the self-nature unmoving is called meditation. Good friends! What is dhyana-samadhi? Outwardly leaving marks is dhyana, and inwardly not being scattered is samadhi. If outwardly one clings to marks, the inner mind is disturbed; if outwardly one leaves marks, the mind is undisturbed. The original nature is originally self-pure and self-settled; it is only on seeing and thinking about circumstances that it is disturbed. If one sees all kinds of circumstances and the mind is not disturbed, that is true samadhi. Good friends! Outwardly leaving marks is dhyana, and inwardly not being disturbed is samadhi. Outer dhyana and inner samadhi: this is called dhyana-samadhi. The Bodhisattva Precepts Sutra says: 'My original self-nature is pure.' Good friends! In every thought, see for yourself that your nature is pure, cultivate it yourself, practice it yourself, and accomplish the Buddha Way yourself."

時，大師見廣韶洎四方士庶，駢集山中聽法，於是陞座，告眾曰：「來，諸善知識！此事須從自事中起，於一切時，念念自淨其心。自修自行，見自己法身，見自心佛，自度自戒，始得不假到此。既從遠來，一會於此，皆共有緣。今可各各胡跪，先為傳自性五分法身香，次授無相懺悔。」眾胡跪。師曰：「一、戒香。即自心中無非無惡、無嫉妬、無貪瞋、無劫害，名戒香。二、定香。即覩諸善惡境相，自心不亂，名定香。三、慧香。自心無礙，常以智慧觀照自性，不造諸惡；雖修眾善，心不執著，敬上念下，矜恤孤貧，名慧香。四、解脫香。即自心無所攀緣，不思善、不思惡，自在無礙，名解脫香。五、解脫知見香。自心既無所攀緣善惡，不可沈空守寂，即須廣學多聞，識自本心，達諸佛理，和光接物，無我無人，直至菩提，真性不易，名解脫知見香。善知識！此香各自內燻，莫向外覓。

At that time the Master, seeing that scholars and common people from Guangzhou, Shaozhou, and all quarters had gathered in the mountains to hear the Dharma, ascended the seat and told the assembly: "Come, all you good friends! This matter must begin with oneself; at all times, in every thought, purify your own mind for yourself. Cultivate yourself, practice for yourself, see your own Dharma body, see the Buddha of your own mind, save yourself and keep the precepts for yourself; only then is it not in vain that you came here. Since you have come from afar and gathered together here, all of this is due to affinity. Now please kneel with one knee on the ground, and I will first transmit to you the five-part Dharma-body incense of the self-nature, and then confer the formless repentance." The people knelt. The Master said: "The first is the incense of precepts: it is that in one's own mind there is no fault or wrong, no evil, no jealousy, no greed or anger, no robbing or harming; this is called the incense of precepts. The second is the incense of concentration: seeing all kinds of good and evil circumstances and one's own mind not being disturbed; this is called the incense of concentration. The third is the incense of wisdom: one's own mind has no obstruction, and one constantly uses wisdom to illuminate the self-nature, and does not create all kinds of evil; though cultivating all kinds of good, the mind is not attached; respecting elders, caring for juniors, and pitying the lonely, suffering, and poor; this is called the incense of wisdom. The fourth is the incense of liberation: one's own mind clinging to nothing, not thinking of good or evil, free and unobstructed; this is called the incense of liberation. The fifth is the incense of the knowledge and vision of liberation: since one's own mind clings to neither good nor evil, one must not sink into emptiness or hold on to stillness, and one must study widely and learn much, know one's own original mind, penetrate the principles of all the Buddhas, receive beings in harmony with the light, with no self and no other, all the way to bodhi, the true nature unchanging; this is called the incense of the knowledge and vision of liberation. Good friends! These five kinds of incense must each be cultivated and accomplished within one's own mind; do not look for them outside.

「今與汝等授無相懺悔，滅三世罪，令得三業清淨。善知識！各隨我語，一時道：『弟子等，從前念今念及後念，念念不被愚迷染。從前所有惡業愚迷等罪，悉皆懺悔，願一時銷滅，永不復起。弟子等，從前念今念及後念，念念不被憍誑染。從前所有惡業憍誑等罪，悉皆懺悔，願一時銷滅，永不復起。弟子等，從前念今念及後念，念念不被嫉妬染。從前所有惡業嫉妬等罪，悉皆懺悔，願一時銷滅，永不復起。』善知識！已上是為無相懺悔。云何名懺？云何名悔？懺者，懺其前愆，從前所有惡業，愚迷憍誑嫉妬等罪，悉皆盡懺，永不復起，是名為懺。悔者，悔其後過，從今以後，所有惡業，愚迷憍誑嫉妬等罪，今已覺悟，悉皆永斷，更不復作，是名為悔。故稱懺悔。凡夫愚迷，只知懺其前愆，不知悔其後過。以不悔故，前愆不滅，後過又生。前愆既不滅，後過復又生，何名懺悔？

"Now I will confer on you the formless repentance, to eliminate offenses of the three times and make the three karmas pure. Good friends! Follow me and recite together: 'We, the disciples, from the previous thought, the present thought, to the following thought, in every thought are not stained by delusion. All our evil karma and offenses of delusion and the like from the past, we repent of them all; may they be extinguished at once, never to arise again. We, the disciples, from the previous thought, the present thought, to the following thought, in every thought are not stained by arrogance and deceit. All our evil karma and offenses of arrogance, deceit, and the like from the past, we repent of them all; may they be extinguished at once, never to arise again. We, the disciples, from the previous thought, the present thought, to the following thought, in every thought are not stained by jealousy. All our evil karma and offenses of jealousy and the like from the past, we repent of them all; may they be extinguished at once, never to arise again.' Good friends! The above is the formless repentance. What is 'chan' and what is 'hui'? 'Chan' is to eliminate earlier faults: all earlier evil karma, offenses of delusion, arrogance, deceit, jealousy, and the like, repented of completely, never to arise again; this is called chan. 'Hui' is to reform later faults: from now on, all evil karma, offenses of delusion, arrogance, deceit, jealousy, and the like, now awakened to, are all cut off forever and not done again; this is called hui. Together they are called repentance. Ordinary and foolish people only know to eliminate earlier faults and do not know to reform later faults. Because they do not reform, the earlier faults are not extinguished and later faults arise again. If earlier faults are not extinguished and later faults arise in turn, how can that be called repentance?

「善知識！既懺悔已，與善知識發四弘誓願，各須用心正聽。自心眾生無邊誓願度，自心煩惱無邊誓願斷，自性法門無盡誓願學，自性無上佛道誓願成。善知識！大家豈不道，眾生無邊誓願度。恁麼道，且不是惠能度。善知識！心中眾生，所謂邪迷心、誑妄心、不善心、嫉妬心、惡毒心，如是等心，盡是眾生。各須自性自度，是名真度。何名自性自度？即自心中邪見煩惱愚痴眾生，將正見度。既有正見，使般若智打破愚痴迷妄眾生，各各自度。邪來正度，迷來悟度，愚來智度，惡來善度；如是度者，名為真度。又煩惱無邊誓願斷，將自性般若智，除卻虛妄思想心是也。又法門無盡誓願學，須自見性，常行正法，是名真學。又無上佛道誓願成，既常能下心，行於真正，離迷離覺，常生般若。除真除妄，即見佛性，即言下佛道成。常念修行，是願力法。

"Good friends! Since repentance is finished, I will now give you the four great vows; each of you must listen with right attention: 'Beings of one's own mind are boundless; I vow to save them all. Afflictions of one's own mind are boundless; I vow to cut them all off. The Dharma gates of one's own nature are inexhaustible; I vow to study them all. The unsurpassed Buddha Way of one's own nature; I vow to accomplish it.' Good friends! Does everyone not say, 'Beings are boundless, I vow to save them'? Saying so does not mean that Huineng saves them. Good friends! The beings in one's mind are those called the deluded mind, the false mind, the unwholesome mind, the jealous mind, the malicious mind; all such minds are beings. Each person must save them himself with his own nature, and this is called true saving. What is meant by saving oneself with one's own nature? It means saving the beings of wrong view, affliction, and ignorance within one's own mind with right view. Once one has right view, one uses prajna wisdom to break through the beings of ignorance, delusion, and falsity, each saving himself. When the wrong comes, save it with the right; when delusion comes, save it with awakening; when ignorance comes, save it with wisdom; when evil comes, save it with good; saving in this way is called true saving. Furthermore, 'Afflictions are boundless; I vow to cut them off' means using the prajna wisdom of the self-nature to remove the false thinking mind. Furthermore, 'The Dharma gates are inexhaustible; I vow to study them' means that one must see one's own nature and constantly practice the right Dharma, and this is called true study. Furthermore, 'The unsurpassed Buddha Way; I vow to accomplish it' means that, since one can always lower oneself and walk the true path, leaving both delusion and awakening, constantly giving rise to prajna, removing both the true and the false, one sees the Buddha nature and at once accomplishes the Buddha Way. Constantly keeping this in mind in practice is the Dharma of the power of vows.

「善知識！今發四弘願了，更與善知識授無相三歸依戒。善知識！歸依覺，兩足尊。歸依正，離欲尊。歸依淨，眾中尊。從今日去，稱覺為師，更不歸依邪魔外道，以自性三寶常自證明，勸善知識歸依自性三寶。佛者，覺也。法者，正也。僧者，淨也。自心歸依覺，邪迷不生，少欲知足，能離財色，名兩足尊。自心歸依正，念念無邪見，以無邪見故，即無人我貢高，貪愛執著，名離欲尊。自心歸依淨，一切塵勞愛欲境界，自性皆不染著，名眾中尊。若修此行，是自歸依。凡夫不會，從日至夜受三歸戒。若言歸依佛，佛在何處？若不見佛，憑何所歸，言卻成妄。善知識！各自觀察，莫錯用心。經文分明言自歸依佛，不言歸依他佛。自佛不歸，無所依處。今既自悟，各須歸依自心三寶，內調心性，外敬他人，是自歸依也。

"Good and wise friends! Now that you have made the four great vows, I shall give you the formless Three Refuges precepts. Good friends! To take refuge in the Awakened is to take refuge in the Honored One with two kinds of fullness; to take refuge in the Right is to take refuge in the Honored One free of desire; to take refuge in the Pure is to take refuge in the Honored One among the assembly. From today on, call the 'Awakened' your teacher, and no longer take refuge in demons and outside paths, always verifying yourself by the Three Jewels of your own nature. I urge all of you, good friends, to take refuge in the Three Jewels of your own nature: the Buddha is awakening; the Dharma is rightness; the Sangha is purity. When your own mind takes refuge in awakening, deluded and wrong thoughts do not arise; with few desires and contentment, able to leave wealth and sex, this is called the Honored One with two kinds of fullness. When your own mind takes refuge in rightness, there are no wrong views in any thought; because there are no wrong views, there is no ego, arrogance, craving or clinging, and this is called the Honored One free of desire. When your own mind takes refuge in purity, none of the realms of dust, toil and desire stain your own nature, and this is called the Honored One among the assembly. If you practice this, that is taking refuge in yourself. Ordinary people do not understand, and from morning to night they take the Three Refuges precepts. If they say they take refuge in the Buddha, where is the Buddha? If they cannot see the Buddha, on what basis do they take refuge? That speech then becomes false speech. Good friends! Each of you observe for yourself, and do not misuse the mind. The sutra says plainly to take refuge in the Buddha within oneself, and does not say to take refuge in some other Buddha. If you do not take refuge in your own Buddha, there is nothing to rely on. Now that you have each awakened yourselves, you should take refuge in the Three Jewels of your own mind: inwardly tame your mind and nature, outwardly show respect to others, and this is taking refuge in yourself."

「善知識！既歸依自三寶竟，各各志心，吾與說一體三身自性佛，令汝等見三身瞭然，自悟自性。總隨我道：『於自色身，歸依清淨法身佛。於自色身，歸依圓滿報身佛。於自色身，歸依千百億化身佛。』善知識！色身是舍宅，不可言歸。曏者三身佛，在自性中，世人總有；為自心迷，不見內性。外覓三身如來，不見自身中有三身佛。汝等聽說，令汝等於自身中，見自性有三身佛。此三身佛，從自性生，不從外得。何名清淨法身佛？世人性本清淨，萬法從自性生。思量一切惡事，即生惡行；思量一切善事，即生善行。如是諸法在自性中，如天常清，日月常明，為浮雲蓋覆，上明下暗。忽遇風吹雲散，上下俱明，萬象皆現。世人性常浮游，如彼天雲。善知識！智如日，慧如月，智慧常明。於外著境，被妄念浮雲蓋覆自性，不得明朗。若遇善知識，聞真正法，自除迷妄，內外明徹，於自性中萬法皆現。見性之人，亦復如是。此名清淨法身佛。善知識！自心歸依自性，是歸依真佛。自歸依者，除卻自性中不善心、嫉妬心、諂曲心、吾我心、誑妄心、輕人心、慢他心、邪見心、貢高心，及一切時中不善之行，常自見己過，不說他人好惡，是自歸依。常須下心，普行恭敬，即是見性通達，更無滯礙，是自歸依。何名圓滿報身？譬如一燈能除千年闇，一智能滅萬年愚。莫思向前，已過不可得；常思於後，念念圓明，自見本性。善惡雖殊，本性無二，無二之性，名為實性。於實性中，不染善惡，此名圓滿報身佛。自性起一念惡，滅萬劫善因；自性起一念善，得恆沙惡盡。直至無上菩提，念念自見，不失本念，名為報身。何名千百億化身？若不思萬法，性本如空，一念思量，名為變化。思量惡事，化為地獄；思量善事，化為天堂。毒害化為龍蛇，慈悲化為菩薩，智慧化為上界，愚痴化為下方。

"Good friends! Now that you have taken refuge in the Three Jewels of your own nature, focus your minds with one intention, and I will explain to you the Buddha of self-nature in one essence and three bodies, so that you can see the three bodies clearly and awaken to your own nature. Recite after me: 'In my own physical body, I take refuge in the pure Dharma-body Buddha; in my own physical body, I take refuge in the perfect Reward-body Buddha; in my own physical body, I take refuge in the hundred billion Transformation-body Buddhas.' Good friends! The physical body is a house and cannot be spoken of as something to take refuge in. The Buddha of the three bodies spoken of above is within one's own nature, and all people have it; only because your own mind is deluded, you do not see the inner nature, and you go outward to seek the three bodies of the Tathagata, without seeing the Buddha of the three bodies within your own body. Listen to me, and I will let you see within your own body that your own nature has the Buddha of the three bodies. These three-body Buddhas arise from your own nature and are not obtained from outside. What is the pure Dharma-body Buddha? The nature of people in the world is originally pure, and all dharmas arise from one's own nature. Think of all evil things and evil conduct arises; think of all good things and good conduct arises. Thus all kinds of dharmas are within your own nature, like the sky which is always clear and the sun and moon which are always bright, but covered by floating clouds, so that above it is bright and below it is dark; if suddenly a wind blows and the clouds scatter, above and below are both bright, and all phenomena appear. The nature of worldly people is always drifting, like those clouds in the sky. Good friends! Wisdom is like the sun, and insight is like the moon, and wisdom and insight are always bright. If outwardly you are attached to realms and the floating clouds of deluded thoughts cover your own nature, it cannot be bright. If you meet a good and wise friend and hear the true Dharma, and remove delusion yourself, inside and out are clear and transparent, and all dharmas appear within your own nature. Those who see their nature are also like this. This is called the pure Dharma-body Buddha. Good friends! When your own mind takes refuge in your own nature, that is taking refuge in the true Buddha. What is called taking refuge in oneself is removing from your own nature the unwholesome mind, the jealous mind, the flattering and crooked mind, the self-clinging mind, the deceitful mind, the mind that despises others, the mind that is arrogant toward others, the mind of wrong views, the mind of conceit, and unwholesome conduct at all times; always seeing your own faults and not speaking of the good and bad of others, this is taking refuge in yourself. You should always lower yourself and show respect to all, and then you have seen your nature and become open, with no more obstruction; this is taking refuge in yourself. What is the perfect Reward-body? For example, a single lamp can dispel a thousand years of darkness, and one bit of wisdom can destroy ten thousand years of ignorance. Do not think of the past; what has passed cannot be recovered; always think of what comes after, and in every thought be perfect and bright, and see your own nature yourself. Though good and evil are different, the original nature has no two forms; this nature without two forms is called the real nature. Within the real nature, not being stained by good and evil, this is called the perfect Reward-body Buddha. If your own nature gives rise to a single evil thought, it destroys the good causes of ten thousand kalpas; if your own nature gives rise to a single good thought, it wipes out evil as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. Up to unsurpassed bodhi, in every thought seeing it yourself and not losing your original thought is called the Reward-body. What are the hundred billion Transformation bodies? If you do not think of the myriad dharmas, the nature is like empty space; a single thought of thinking is called transformation. Thinking of evil things transforms into hell; thinking of good things transforms into heaven; poison and harm transform into dragons and snakes, compassion transforms into Bodhisattvas, wisdom transforms into the upper realms, and ignorance transforms into the lower regions."

自性變化甚多，迷人不能省覺，念念起惡，常行惡道。迴一念善，智慧即生，此名自性化身佛。善知識！法身本具，念念自性自見，即是報身佛。從報身思量，即是化身佛。自悟自修自性功德，是真歸依。皮肉是色身，色身是舍宅，不言歸依也。但悟自性三身，即識自性佛。吾有一無相頌，若能誦持，言下令汝積劫迷罪一時銷滅。頌曰：

(The Master continued:) The transformations of self-nature are very many, and deluded people cannot examine and awaken, and in every thought give rise to evil and constantly walk evil paths. Turn one thought back toward goodness and wisdom is born; this is called the Transformation-body Buddha of self-nature. Good friends! The Dharma-body is originally complete; in every thought, seeing one's own nature oneself is the Reward-body Buddha. Thinking from the Reward-body is the Transformation-body Buddha. Awakening yourself and cultivating the merit of your own nature yourself is true refuge. The skin and flesh are the physical body, and the physical body is a house; one does not speak of taking refuge in it. Only awaken to the three bodies of your own nature, and you will know the Buddha of your own nature. I have a formless verse; if you can recite and uphold it, it will instantly make the deluded offenses of your many kalpas vanish at once. The verse says:

「迷人修福不修道，只言修福便是道，

Deluded people cultivate only merit and not the Way, yet say that cultivating merit is cultivating the Way;

佈施供養福無邊，心中三惡元來造。

though the merit of giving and making offerings is boundless, the three evils of greed, anger and delusion in the heart are still being created as before.

擬將修福欲滅罪，後世得福罪還在，

Hoping to use cultivating merit to wipe out offenses, in a later life one receives merit and the offenses remain;

但向心中除罪緣，名自性中真懺悔。

only by removing in the heart the causes and conditions of creating offenses is it called true repentance within one's own nature.

忽悟大乘真懺悔，除邪行正即無罪，

Suddenly awakening to the true repentance of the Mahayana, removing the wrong and practicing the right, one is at once without offense;

學道常於自性觀，即與諸佛同一類。

one who studies the Way and constantly contemplates one's own nature is of the same kind as all the Buddhas.

吾祖惟傳此頓法，普願見性同一體，

Our patriarchs transmitted only this sudden teaching, vowing that everyone should see their nature and be of one body;

若欲當來覓法身，離諸法相心中洗。

if in future you want to find the Dharma-body, you must leave all the forms of dharmas and wash them clean in the heart.

努力自見莫悠悠，後念忽絕一世休，

Strive to see it yourself, and do not drift through the days in a daze; when the next thought suddenly breaks off, this life is also finished.

若悟大乘得見性，虔恭合掌至心求。」

If you want to awaken to the Mahayana and see your nature, you should join your palms with reverence and seek it sincerely."

師言：「善知識！總須誦取，依此修行，言下見性。雖去吾千里，如常在吾邊。於此言下不悟，即對面千里，何勤遠來。珍重！好去。」

The Master said: "Good friends! All of you should memorize this and practice according to it, and see your nature on the spot. In this way, even if you are a thousand li from me, it is as if you were always at my side; if you cannot awaken at these words, then even face to face you are a thousand li apart, so why trouble yourselves to come from afar? Take care! Go well."

一眾聞法，靡不開悟，歡喜奉行。

All in the assembly who heard the Dharma awakened, and joyfully put it into practice.

師自黃梅得法，回至韶州曹侯村，人無知者(他本云，師去時，至曹侯村，住九月餘。然師自言：「不經三十餘日便至黃梅。」此求道之切，豈有逗留？作去時者非是)。有儒士劉志略，禮遇甚厚。志略有姑為尼，名無盡藏，常誦《大涅槃經》。師暫聽，即知妙義，遂為解說。尼乃執卷問字，師曰：「字即不識，義即請問。」尼曰：「字尚不識，焉能會義？」師曰：「諸佛妙理，非關文字。」尼驚異之，遍告裡中耆德云：「此是有道之士，宜請供養。」有魏(魏一作晉)武侯玄孫曹叔良及居民，競來瞻禮。時，寶林古寺，自隋末兵火已廢，遂於故基重建梵宇，延師居之。俄成寶坊，師住九月餘日，又為惡黨尋逐，師乃遯於前山。被其縱火焚草木，師隱身挨入石中得免。石今有師趺坐膝痕，及衣布之紋，因名避難石。師憶五祖懷會止藏之囑，遂行隱於二邑焉。

After the Master received the Dharma at Huangmei, he returned to Caohou Village in Shaozhou, where no one knew him. (Other texts say that on his way there the Master stayed nine months or more in Caohou Village. But the Master himself said: "In under thirty days I arrived at Huangmei." Seeking the Way so urgently, how would he have lingered? To say he stayed on the way there is wrong.) There was a Confucian scholar, Liu Zhilue, who treated him with great courtesy. Zhilue had a paternal aunt who had left home to become a nun, with the Dharma name Wujinzang, who often recited the Great Nirvana Sutra. The Master listened for a short while and knew its wondrous meaning, and explained it to her. The nun then took the scroll and asked about characters; the Master said: "I do not know the characters, but ask about the meaning as you like." The nun said: "If you do not know even the characters, how can you grasp the meaning?" The Master said: "The wondrous principles of the Buddhas have nothing to do with written words." The nun was astonished and told the elders of the village everywhere: "This is a person of the Way, and he should be invited and supported." Cao Shuliang, a descendant in the fifth generation of Marquis Wu of Wei, and the villagers came vying to pay homage. (The word "Wei" is "Jin" in some texts.) At that time the old Baolin Temple had fallen into ruin since the military fires at the end of the Sui, so the people rebuilt the monastery on the old foundations and invited the Master to live there, and it soon became a precious monastery. The Master lived there nine months or more, but was again pursued by evil men and fled to the front mountain. Those people set fire to the grass and trees, and the Master squeezed sideways into a crack in the rock and so escaped. That rock still bears the marks of the Master's knees in the lotus posture and the weave of his cloth, and so it is called the Refuge Rock. The Master remembered the Fifth Patriarch's instruction, "stop when you meet Huai, hide when you meet Hui," and went to live in seclusion in the two counties of Huaiji and Sihui.

僧法海，韶州曲江人也。初參祖師，問曰：「即心即佛，願垂指諭。」師曰：「前念不生即心，後念不滅即佛；成一切相即心，離一切相即佛。吾若具說，窮劫不盡。聽吾偈曰：

The monk Fahai was a native of Qujiang in Shaozhou. When he first called on the Patriarch he asked: "'This very mind is Buddha'; I hope you will instruct and reveal this." The Master said: "The previous thought not arising is mind; the following thought not ceasing is Buddha; to accomplish all forms is mind, to be free of all forms is Buddha. If I explained in detail, I could not finish through all the kalpas. Listen to my verse:

「即心名慧，即佛乃定，定慧等持，

In terms of this mind, it is called insight; in terms of this Buddha, it is concentration; when concentration and insight are held equally,

意中清淨。悟此法門，由汝習性，

the mind and thoughts are naturally pure. To awaken to this teaching depends on your own habits;

用本無生，雙修是正。」

its function is originally unborn, and cultivating concentration and insight together is the right path."

法海言下大悟，以偈讚曰：

Fahai had a great awakening at these words and praised it with a verse, saying:

「即心元是佛，不悟而自屈，

This mind is originally Buddha; not awakening is wronging oneself;

我知定慧因，雙修離諸物。」

now that I understand the cause of concentration and insight, cultivating both lets me leave all attachments."

僧法達，洪州人，七歲出家，常誦《法華經》。來禮祖師，頭不至地。師訶曰：「禮不投地，何如不禮？汝心中必有一物。蘊習何事耶？」曰：「念《法華經》已及三千部。」師曰：「汝若念至萬部，得其經意，不以為勝，則與吾偕行。汝今負此事業，都不知過。聽吾偈曰：

The monk Fada was a native of Hongzhou, who left home at seven and often recited the Lotus Sutra. He came to pay homage to the Patriarch, but his head did not touch the ground. The Master rebuked him: "To bow without your head touching the ground is no better than not bowing. There must be something in your heart. What do you usually practice?" He said: "I have recited the Lotus Sutra three thousand times." The Master said: "If you recite it ten thousand times and truly grasp the meaning of the sutra without taking pride in it, then you may walk side by side with me. Now you carry this achievement on your back and have no idea where you are wrong. Listen to my verse:

「禮本折慢幢，頭奚不至地？

Bowing is meant to break the lofty banner of pride; why does your head not touch the ground?

有我罪即生，亡功福無比。」

When there is an "I" in the heart, offenses arise; forgetting your own merit, blessings become beyond compare."

師又曰：「汝名什麼？」曰：「法達。」師曰：「汝名法達，何曾達法？」復說偈曰：

The Master asked again: "What is your name?" He said: "Fada." The Master said: "Your name is Fada, but when have you ever penetrated the Dharma?" And he spoke another verse:

「汝今名法達，勤誦未休歇，

Now your name is Fada, and you toil at reciting the sutra without rest;

空誦但循聲，明心號菩薩。

but reciting with an empty mouth is merely following the sound; one who understands his own mind deserves to be called a Bodhisattva.

汝今有緣故，吾今為汝說，

Now you have an affinity with me, so I will tell you:

但信佛無言，蓮華從口發。」

Only believe that the Buddha is originally wordless, and lotus flowers will bloom from your mouth of themselves."

達聞偈，悔謝曰：「而今而後，當謙恭一切。弟子誦《法華經》，未解經義，心常有疑。和尚智慧廣大，願略說經中義理。」師曰：「法達！法即甚達，汝心不達。經本無疑，汝心自疑。汝念此經，以何為宗？」達曰：「學人根性闇鈍，從來但依文誦念，豈知宗趣？」師曰：「吾不識文字，汝試取經誦一遍，吾當為汝解說。」法達即高聲念經，至譬喻品，師曰：「止！此經元來以因緣出世為宗，縱說多種譬喻，亦無越於此。何者因緣？經云：『諸佛世尊，唯以一大事因緣出現於世。』一大事者，佛之知見也。世人外迷著相，內迷著空；若能於相離相、於空離空，即是內外不迷。若悟此法，一念心開，是為開佛知見。佛，猶覺也。分為四門，開覺知見、示覺知見、悟覺知見、入覺知見。若聞開示，便能悟入，即覺知見，本來真性而得出現。汝慎勿錯解經意，見他道：『開示悟入，自是佛之知見。我輩無分。』若作此解，乃是謗經毀佛也。彼既是佛，已具知見，何用更開？汝今當信，佛知見者，只汝自心，更無別佛。蓋為一切眾生，自蔽光明，貪愛塵境，外緣內擾，甘受驅馳。便勞他世尊，從三昧起，種種苦口，勸令寢息，莫向外求，與佛無二。故云：『開佛知見。』吾亦勸一切人，於自心中，常開佛之知見。世人心邪，愚迷造罪，口善心惡，貪瞋嫉妬，諂佞我慢，侵人害物，自開眾生知見。若能正心，常生智慧，觀照自心，止惡行善，是自開佛之知見。汝須念念開佛知見，勿開眾生知見。開佛知見，即是出世；開眾生知見，即是世間。汝若但勞勞執念，以為功課者，何異犛牛愛尾。」達曰：「若然者，但得解義，不勞誦經耶？」師曰：「經有何過，豈障汝念？只為迷悟在人，損益由己。口誦心行，即是轉經；口誦心不行，即是被經轉。聽吾偈曰：

Fada, hearing the verse, repented and apologized, saying: "From now on I will be humble toward all. Though I recite the Lotus Sutra, I do not understand its meaning, and doubts are always in my mind. The Master's wisdom is vast; I hope you will briefly explain the principles in the sutra." The Master said: "Fada! The Dharma is originally penetrating; it is your mind that does not penetrate. The sutra originally has no doubt; it is your own mind that raises doubt. When you recite this sutra, what do you take as its main point?" Fada said: "This student's faculties are dim and dull, and I have only ever recited according to the words; how would I know any main point?" The Master said: "I do not know how to read; try taking up the sutra and recite it once, and I will explain it for you." Fada then recited the sutra aloud, and when he reached the chapter on Parables, the Master said: "Stop! This sutra at root takes 'appearing in the world through causes and conditions' as its main point, and though many parables are spoken, none go beyond this. What are the causes and conditions? The sutra says: 'The Buddhas, World-Honored Ones, appear in the world only for one great matter.' The one great matter is the Buddha's knowledge and vision. People of the world are deluded outwardly and cling to forms, and deluded inwardly and cling to emptiness; if one can be in form and be apart from form, be in emptiness and be apart from emptiness, then one is not deluded inside or outside. If you awaken to this teaching, the mind opens in a single thought, and this is 'opening the Buddha's knowledge and vision.' 'Buddha' means awakened. It is divided into four gates: opening the awakened knowledge and vision, showing the awakened knowledge and vision, awakening to the awakened knowledge and vision, and entering the awakened knowledge and vision. If, on hearing 'opening' and 'showing,' you can 'awaken' and 'enter,' then that is the awakened knowledge and vision, and the original true nature thereby appears. You must by no means misread the sutra's meaning, seeing others say: 'Opening, showing, awakening and entering are the Buddha's knowledge and vision, and we have no share in it.' If you take it this way, you are slandering the sutra and defaming the Buddha. Since he is already a Buddha, he already has knowledge and vision, so why 'open' it again? You should now believe: what is called the Buddha's knowledge and vision is only your own mind, and there is no other Buddha. It is only because all beings cover their own light, crave the dusty realms, are pulled outside by clinging and stirred up within, willingly driven by them, that the World-Honored One had to rise from samadhi and urge them with all kinds of bitter words to rest and not seek outside, and then they would be no different from the Buddha. This is why it is said 'opening the Buddha's knowledge and vision.' I also urge everyone to keep opening the Buddha's knowledge and vision within their own mind. Worldly people hold crooked views in the heart, are deluded and create offenses, speak good words with evil in the heart, are greedy, angry, jealous, flattering and arrogant, harm others and damage all things; that is opening the knowledge and vision of beings yourself. If you can set your heart right, constantly give rise to wisdom, contemplate your own mind, stop evil and do good, that is opening the Buddha's knowledge and vision yourself. You must open the Buddha's knowledge and vision in every thought, and not open the knowledge and vision of beings. Opening the Buddha's knowledge and vision is going beyond the world; opening the knowledge and vision of beings is the world. If you merely cling toilsomely to recitation and treat it as your daily task, how is that different from a yak cherishing its own tail?" Fada said: "If that is so, then is it enough to understand the meaning, with no need to recite the sutra?" The Master said: "What fault does the sutra have; does it hinder your reciting? It is only that delusion and awakening lie in the person, and loss and gain come from oneself. If the mouth recites and the heart acts, you are turning the sutra; if the mouth recites and the heart does not act, you are turned by the sutra. Listen to my verse:

「心迷法華轉，心悟轉法華，

When the heart is deluded, one is turned by the Lotus; when the heart awakens, one can turn the Lotus;

誦經久不明，與義作讎家。

reciting the sutra for a long time without understanding turns one into the enemy of its meaning.

無念念即正，有念念成邪，

To recite without thought, the recitation is right; to recite with attachment, the recitation becomes wrong;

有無俱不計，長御白牛車。」

when neither being nor non-being is weighed, one can ride that white ox cart forever."

達聞偈，不覺悲泣，言下大悟，而告師曰：「法達從昔已來，實未曾轉法華，乃被法華轉。」再啟曰：「經云：『諸大聲聞乃至菩薩，皆盡思共度量，不能測佛智。』今令凡夫但悟自心，便名佛之知見。自非上根，未免疑謗。又經說三車，羊鹿牛車與白牛之車，如何區別？願和尚再垂開示。」師曰：「經意分明，汝自迷背。諸三乘人，不能測佛智者，患在度量也。饒伊盡思共推，轉加懸遠。佛本為凡夫說，不為佛說。此理若不肯信者，從他退席。殊不知，坐卻白牛車，更於門外覓三車。況經文明向汝道：『唯一佛乘，無有餘乘若二若三。』乃至無數方便，種種因緣譬喻言詞，是法皆為一佛乘故。汝何不省，三車是假，為昔時故；一乘是實，為今時故。只教汝去假歸實，歸實之後，實亦無名。應知所有珍財，盡屬於汝，由汝受用，更不作父想，亦不作子想，亦無用想。是名持法華經，從劫至劫，手不釋卷，從晝至夜，無不念時也。」

Fada, hearing the verse, unwittingly wept, had a great awakening at these words, and told the Master: "Since the past, Fada has truly never turned the Lotus, but has rather been turned by it." He asked again: "The sutra says: 'Even if the many great shravakas, up to the Bodhisattvas, exhausted their thought and together conjectured, they could not measure the Buddha's wisdom.' Now you let ordinary people be told that merely awakening to their own mind is called the Buddha's knowledge and vision. If one is not of the highest capacity, one will inevitably doubt and slander. Furthermore, the sutra speaks of three carts, the goat cart, the deer cart and the ox cart, and the white ox cart; how are they to be distinguished? I hope the Master will instruct me further." The Master said: "The meaning of the sutra is clear; it is you who have lost your way and turned away from it. People of the three vehicles cannot measure the Buddha's wisdom, and the fault lies in 'measuring.' Let them exhaust their thought and seek together; they will only get further away. The Buddha originally spoke for ordinary people, not for Buddhas. If one is unwilling to believe this principle, let them leave the assembly. They do not even realize they are seated in the white ox cart, yet go outside the gate to seek the three carts. What is more, the sutra says plainly to you: 'There is only the One Buddha Vehicle, there is no other vehicle; why speak of two vehicles or three?' Up to countless expedients, all kinds of causes, conditions, parables and words, these dharmas are all for the sake of the One Buddha Vehicle. How is it that you do not realize: the three carts are provisional, for that time; the One Vehicle is real, for now. It only teaches you to remove the false and return to the true; after returning to the true, even the name 'true' does not exist. You should know that all the treasures and property belong entirely to you, for you to use, and you need no longer think of a father, nor of a son, nor of 'using.' This is what is called upholding the Lotus Sutra: from kalpa to kalpa the scroll never leaves your hand, and from day to night there is no time when you are not reciting."

達蒙啟發，踴躍歡喜，以偈讚曰：

Fada, enlightened, leapt with joy and praised it with a verse, saying:

「經誦三千部，曹溪一句亡，

Having recited the sutra three thousand times, it was all wiped out by one sentence from Caoxi;

未明出世旨，寧歇累生狂。

without understanding the purpose of coming into the world, how could one rest the wild mind of many lifetimes?

羊鹿牛權設，初中後善揚，

The goat cart, deer cart and ox cart are set up as expedients, with early good, middle good and later good proclaimed in order;

誰知火宅內，元是法中王。」

who would know that right within this burning house is originally the king of the Dharma."

師曰：「汝今後方可名念經僧也。」達從此領玄旨，亦不輟誦經。

The Master said: "From now on you can be called a sutra-reciting monk." From then on Fada grasped the profound purpose, and did not stop reciting the sutra either.

僧智通，壽州安豐人。初看《楞伽經》。約千餘遍，而不會三身四智。禮師求解其義，師曰：「三身者，清淨法身，汝之性也；圓滿報身，汝之智也；千百億化身，汝之行也。若離本性，別說三身，即名有身無智；若悟三身無有自性，即明四智菩提。聽吾偈曰：

The monk Zhitong was a native of Anfeng in Shouzhou. At first he read the Lankavatara Sutra about a thousand times and more, yet did not understand the three bodies and four wisdoms. He bowed to the Master and asked for their meaning, and the Master said: "As for the three bodies: the pure Dharma-body is your own nature; the perfect Reward-body is your wisdom; the hundred billion Transformation bodies are your conduct. If one leaves the nature and talks of the three bodies separately, that is called having bodies without wisdom; if one awakens to the three bodies having no self-nature, one understands the bodhi of the four wisdoms. Listen to my verse:

「自性具三身，發明成四智，

Self-nature is originally complete in the three bodies; when developed, they become the four wisdoms;

不離見聞緣，超然登佛地。

without leaving the conditions of seeing and hearing, one can transcendently ascend to the Buddha stage.

吾今為汝說，諦信永無迷，

Today I explain it to you; if you truly believe, you will never be deluded;

莫學馳求者，終日說菩提。」

do not imitate those who run outward in their seeking, who all day speak of bodhi with their mouths."

通再啟曰：「四智之義，可得聞乎？」師曰：「既會三身，便明四智。何更問耶？若離三身，別談四智，此名有智無身。即此有智，還成無智。」復說偈曰：

Zhitong asked again: "May I hear you explain the meaning of the four wisdoms?" The Master said: "Since you have understood the three bodies, you understand the four wisdoms; why ask again? If one leaves the three bodies and discusses the four wisdoms separately, that is called having wisdom without a body; even if there is wisdom, it becomes no wisdom." He spoke another verse:

「大圓鏡智性清淨，平等性智心無病，

The Great Mirror Wisdom is the purity of the original nature; the Wisdom of Equality is the mind without sickness;

妙觀察智見非功，成所作智同圓鏡。

the Wisdom of Wondrous Observation is seeing naturally without effort; the Wisdom of Accomplishing Action is the same as the Great Mirror Wisdom.

五八六七果因轉，但用名言無實性，

The first five consciousnesses and the eighth turn at the stage of fruition, while the sixth and seventh turn at the stage of cause; this is only a matter of names and words, with no real self-nature.

若於轉處不留情，繁興永處那伽定。」

If, in the place of turning, one leaves not a trace of emotional clinging, then even as the myriad conditions arise in profusion, one stays forever in the great concentration of a naga (dragon)."

(如上轉識為智也。教中云，轉前五識為成所作智，轉第六識為妙觀察智，轉第七識為平等性智，轉第八識為大圓鏡智。雖六七因中轉，五八果上轉，但轉其名而不轉其體也)。

(The above speaks of turning consciousness into wisdom. The teaching schools say: turning the first five consciousnesses is the Wisdom of Accomplishing Action, turning the sixth consciousness is the Wisdom of Wondrous Observation, turning the seventh consciousness is the Wisdom of Equality, and turning the eighth consciousness is the Great Mirror Wisdom. Though the sixth and seventh consciousnesses turn at the stage of cause and the fifth and eighth at the stage of fruition, what turns is only the name and not their substance.)

通頓悟性智，遂呈偈曰：

Zhitong suddenly awakened to the wisdom of his original nature, and presented a verse:

「三身元我體，四智本心明，

The three bodies are originally my own substance, and the four wisdoms are originally the light of the mind;

身智融無礙，應物任隨形。

body and wisdom interfuse without obstruction, responding to all things and appearing according to their form.

起修皆妄動，守住匪真精，

To set out cultivating with a stirred mind is all delusion, and clinging stubbornly is not true subtlety either;

妙旨因師曉，終亡染汙名。」

this wondrous meaning I understood through my teacher, and in the end I have forgotten even the name of 'defilement.'"

僧智常，信州貴溪人，髫年出家，志求見性。一日參禮，師問曰：「汝從何來？欲求何事？」曰：「學人近往洪州白峰山禮大通和尚，蒙示見性成佛之義。未決狐疑，遠來投禮，伏望和尚慈悲指示。」師曰：「彼有何言句？汝試舉看。」曰：「智常到彼，凡經三月，未蒙示誨。為法切故，一夕獨入丈室，請問：『如何是某甲本心本性？』大通乃曰：『汝見虛空否？』對曰：『見。』彼曰：『汝見虛空有相貌否？』對曰：『虛空無形，有何相貌？』彼曰：『汝之本性，猶如虛空，了無一物可見，是名正見；無一物可知，是名真知。無有青黃長短，但見本源清淨，覺體圓明，即名見性成佛，亦名如來知見。』學人雖聞此說，猶未決了，乞和尚開示。」師曰：「彼師所說，猶存見知，故令汝未了。吾今示汝一偈：

The monk Zhichang was a native of Guixi in Xinzhou, who left home as a child and set his will on seeing his nature. One day he came to pay respects, and the Master asked: "Where do you come from? What do you want to seek?" He said: "Recently this student went to Baifeng Mountain in Hongzhou to bow to the monk Datong, and received his instruction on the principle of seeing one's nature and becoming a Buddha, but my doubts were not resolved, and I came from afar to pay homage, earnestly hoping the Master will compassionately instruct me." The Master said: "What did he say? Try to quote it for me." He said: "When Zhichang arrived there, three months passed without his instruction. Because I was eager to seek the Dharma, one evening I entered his abbot's room alone and asked: 'What is my original mind and nature?' Datong said: 'Do you see empty space?' I answered: 'I see it.' He said: 'Does empty space have any appearance?' I answered: 'Empty space has no form; what appearance could it have?' He said: 'Your nature is like empty space, seeing nothing at all; this is called right view; knowing nothing at all, this is called true knowledge. With no blue or yellow, long or short, seeing only that the original source is pure and the awakened essence is perfectly bright, this is called seeing one's nature and becoming a Buddha, and is also called the Tathagata's knowledge and vision.' Although this student heard these words, I still have not resolved and understood it, and I beg the Master to instruct me." The Master said: "What he said still retains 'seeing' and 'knowing,' and that is why you cannot understand. Now I give you a verse:

「不見一法存無見，大似浮雲遮日面，

To say one sees not a single dharma, yet still keep a 'seeing of nothing,' is like floating clouds covering the sun;

不知一法守空知，還如太虛生閃電。

to say one knows not a single dharma, yet still guard an 'empty knowing,' is like lightning arising in the great void.

此之知見瞥然興，錯認何曾解方便，

When this knowing and seeing suddenly arises, it is a mistaken recognition, and how could it count as understanding skillful means;

汝當一念自知非，自己靈光常顯現。」

if in a single thought you know its wrongness yourself, your own spiritual light will always appear."

常聞偈已，心意豁然。乃述偈曰：

When Zhichang had heard the verse, his mind opened and cleared, and he composed a verse:

「無端起知見，著相求菩提，

Without cause, knowing and seeing arise, and clinging to forms one seeks bodhi;

情存一念悟，寧越昔時迷。

with the thought 'I have a single thought of awakening' still in the heart, how can one surpass the former delusion?

自性覺源體，隨照枉遷流，

Self-nature is originally the source substance of awakening, yet it drifts in vain following the outward illumination;

不入祖師室，茫然趣兩頭。」

if one does not enter the Patriarch's gate, one will only run aimlessly between two extremes."

智常一日問師曰：「佛說三乘法，又言最上乘。弟子未解，願為教授。」師曰：「汝觀自本心，莫著外法相。法無四乘，人心自有等差。見聞轉誦是小乘；悟法解義是中乘；依法修行是大乘；萬法盡通，萬法俱備，一切不染，離諸法相，一無所得，名最上乘。乘是行義，不在口爭。汝須自修，莫問吾也。一切時中，自性自如。」常禮謝執侍，終師之世。

One day Zhichang asked the Master: "The Buddha speaks of the three vehicles, and also of the supreme vehicle. This disciple does not understand; I hope you will instruct me." The Master said: "Contemplate your own original mind, and do not cling to external forms of dharmas. The Dharma has no four vehicles; it is that human minds have their own differing grades. Seeing, hearing, and reciting is the Small Vehicle; awakening to the meaning of the Dharma is the Middle Vehicle; practicing according to the Dharma is the Great Vehicle; fully penetrating all dharmas, fully possessing all dharmas, undefiled by anything, free of all forms of dharmas, attaining nothing at all, is called the Supreme Vehicle. 'Vehicle' means practice, and does not lie in arguing with the mouth. You must practice yourself and not ask me. At all times your own nature is naturally suchness." Zhichang bowed and thanked him, and from then on served the Master until his death.

僧志道，廣州南海人也。請益曰：「學人自出家，覽《涅槃經》十載有餘，未明大意，願和尚垂誨。」師曰：「汝何處未明？」曰：「諸行無常，是生滅法；生滅滅已，寂滅為樂。於此疑惑。」師曰：「汝作麼生疑？」曰：「一切眾生皆有二身，謂色身、法身也。色身無常，有生有滅；法身有常，無知無覺。經云：『生滅滅已，寂滅為樂』者，不審何身寂滅？何身受樂？若色身者，色身滅時，四大分散，全然是苦，苦不可言樂。若法身寂滅，即同草木瓦石，誰當受樂？又法性是生滅之體，五蘊是生滅之用，一體五用，生滅是常。生則從體起用，滅則攝用歸體。若聽更生，即有情之類，不斷不滅；若不聽更生，則永歸寂滅，同於無情之物。如是，則一切諸法被涅槃之所禁伏，尚不得生，何樂之有？」師曰：「汝是釋子，何習外道斷常邪見，而議最上乘法？據汝所說，即色身外別有法身，離生滅求於寂滅。又推涅槃常樂，言有身受用。斯乃執悋生死，耽著世樂。汝今當知，佛為一切迷人，認五蘊和合為自體相，分別一切法為外塵相，好生惡死，念念遷流，不知夢幻虛假，枉受輪迴。以常樂涅槃翻為苦相，終日馳求。佛愍此故，乃示涅槃真樂。剎那無有生相，剎那無有滅相，更無生滅可滅，是則寂滅現前。當現前時，亦無現前之量，乃謂常樂。此樂無有受者，亦無不受者，豈有一體五用之名？何況更言涅槃禁伏諸法，令永不生。斯乃謗佛毀法。聽吾偈曰：

The monk Zhidao was a native of Nanhai in Guangzhou. He asked: "Since leaving home, this student has read the Nirvana Sutra for more than ten years and still does not understand its main meaning; I hope the Master will instruct me." The Master said: "What do you not understand?" He said: "'All conditioned things are impermanent; they are the law of arising and ceasing; when arising and ceasing have ceased, stillness is bliss.' I have a doubt about this line." The Master said: "What is your doubt?" He said: "All beings have two bodies, the physical body and the Dharma-body. The physical body is impermanent, with birth and cessation; the Dharma-body is permanent, without knowing or sensing. The sutra says 'when arising and ceasing have ceased, stillness is bliss'; I do not know which body is still? Which body experiences bliss? If it is the physical body, when the physical body perishes the four elements disperse, and it is entirely suffering, and suffering cannot be called bliss. If it is the Dharma-body that is still, then it is the same as grass, trees, tiles and stones; who would experience bliss? Moreover, the Dharma-nature is the substance of arising and ceasing and the five aggregates are the function of arising and ceasing, one substance with five functions, and arising and ceasing are constant. Arising is the function arising from the substance, and ceasing is gathering the function back into substance. If rebirth is allowed, then sentient beings neither end nor cease; if rebirth is not allowed, then one is forever in stillness, the same as insentient things. In this way all dharmas are bound up by nirvana, unable even to arise; what bliss is there?" The Master said: "You are a disciple of the Buddha; why practice the wrong views of annihilation and permanence of outside paths, and still come to discuss the Supreme Vehicle Dharma? By what you say, there is a Dharma-body outside the physical body, and one leaves arising and ceasing to seek stillness; you also imagine the permanent bliss of nirvana, saying there is a body enjoying it. This is precisely clinging to birth and death and being unwilling to let go, and craving the pleasures of the world. You should know now: the Buddha, for all deluded people, took the combination of the five aggregates as their own substance and form, took the discriminating of all dharmas as external dust-forms, liked life and hated death, drifted from thought to thought, not knowing that it is a false dream, and in vain suffered the pain of the cycle; taking the permanent bliss of nirvana for a form of suffering, they ran outward all day seeking. The Buddha pitied this, and so revealed the true bliss of nirvana: in an instant there is no form of arising, in an instant there is no form of ceasing, and there is no arising and ceasing to cease, and then stillness is present. At the very moment it is present, there is no measure of 'being present' to speak of, and this is called permanent bliss. This bliss has no one who receives it and no one who does not receive it; how could there be any such names as one substance and five functions? What is more, to say that nirvana binds all dharmas and keeps them from ever arising is slandering the Buddha and defaming the Dharma. Listen to my verse:

「無上大涅槃，圓明常寂照，

Supreme great nirvana, perfect and bright, always still yet illuminating;

凡愚謂之死，外道執為斷，

foolish ordinary people take it as death, outside paths cling to it as annihilation,

諸求二乘人，目以為無作，

and those who seek the two vehicles see it as having nothing to be done.

盡屬情所計，六十二見本。

All these belong to the conjecturing of emotional consciousness, and are the root of the sixty-two wrong views.

妄立虛假名，何為真實義，

To set up false names recklessly, how can one speak of the true meaning;

惟有過量人，通達無取捨。

only those who go beyond ordinary measure are open, with no taking and no discarding.

以知五蘊法，及以蘊中我，

Because they know the dharma of the five aggregates, and the so-called 'self' within the aggregates,

外現眾色象，一一音聲相，

and also the many forms appearing outside, and each and every kind of sound,

平等如夢幻，不起凡聖見，

all are equal as dreams and illusions, so they do not give rise to views distinguishing ordinary from holy,

不作涅槃解，二邊三際斷。

nor do they form an understanding of 'nirvana,' and the two extremes and the three times of past, present and future are cut off.

常應諸根用，而不起用想，

They constantly respond with the functions of the six faculties, yet do not give rise to the thought 'I am using them';

分別一切法，不起分別想。

they discriminate all dharmas, yet do not give rise to the thought 'I am discriminating.'

劫火燒海底，風鼓山相擊，

Even if the great fire at the end of the kalpa burns to the bottom of the sea, and the raging wind makes the mountains collide,

真常寂滅樂，涅槃相如是。

the bliss of true, constant stillness remains unmoved; such is the form of nirvana.

吾今彊言說，令汝捨邪見，

Now I speak with words only reluctantly, in order to make you discard wrong views;

汝勿隨言解，許汝知少分。」

do not follow the literal meaning to understand it, and then I will allow you to know a little."

志道聞偈大悟，踴躍作禮而退。

Zhidao, hearing the verse, awakened greatly, bowed with joy and withdrew.

行思禪師，生吉州安城劉氏。聞曹溪法席盛化，徑來參禮，遂問曰：「當何所務，即不落階級？」師曰：「汝曾作什麼來？」曰：「聖諦亦不為。」師曰：「落何階級？」曰：「聖諦尚不為，何階級之有？」師深器之，令思首眾。一日，師謂曰：「汝當分化一方，無令斷絕。」思既得法，遂回吉州青原山，弘法紹化(諡弘濟禪師)。

Chan Master Xingsi was born into the Liu family of Anchang in Jizhou. Hearing that the Dharma seat at Caoxi flourished in teaching, he came straight to pay respects, and asked: "What should one do so as not to fall into stages and ranks?" The Master said: "What have you done before?" He said: "I do not even practice the holy truths." The Master said: "Then into what stage do you fall?" He said: "If I do not even practice the holy truths, what stages are there?" The Master greatly valued him and made him head seat. One day the Master said to him: "You should go and teach in a region separately, and not let the Dharma be cut off." After Xingsi received the Dharma, he returned to Qingyuan Mountain in Jizhou to spread the Dharma and carry on the teaching. (His posthumous title is Chan Master Hongji.)

懷讓禪師，金州杜氏子也。初謁嵩山安國師，安發之曹溪參扣。讓至禮拜，師曰：「甚處來？」曰：「嵩山。」師曰：「什麼物？恁麼來？」曰：「說似一物即不中。」師曰：「還可修證否？」曰：「修證即不無，汙染即不得。」師曰：「只此不汙染，諸佛之所護念。汝既如是，吾亦如是。西天般若多羅讖，汝足下出一馬駒，踏殺天下人。應在汝心，不須速說(一本無西天以下二十七字)。」讓豁然契會，遂執侍左右一十五載，日臻玄奧。後往南嶽，大闡禪宗(勅諡大慧禪師)。

Chan Master Huairang was a son of the Du family of Jinzhou. At first he called on National Teacher Hui'an of Mount Song, who sent him to Caoxi to inquire. When Huairang arrived and bowed, the Master asked: "Where do you come from?" He said: "Mount Song." The Master said: "What thing is it that has come thus?" He said: "To say it is like any thing would be wrong." The Master said: "Can it still be cultivated and realized?" He said: "It is not that there is no cultivation and realization, but it cannot be defiled." The Master said: "It is just this non-defilement that all Buddhas protect and keep in mind. Since you are so, I am also so. Prajnatara of the Western Heaven prophesied: from your disciples will come a colt who will trample the whole world to death. These words should be kept in your heart, and need not be spoken hurriedly." (Some texts lack the twenty-seven characters from "Western Heaven" on.) Huairang suddenly understood and agreed, and so served at the Master's side for fifteen years, day by day going deeper into the profound. Later he went to Nanyue and greatly spread the Chan school. (He was granted by imperial decree the posthumous title Chan Master Dahui.)

永嘉玄覺禪師，溫州戴氏子。少習經論，精天台止觀法門。因看《維摩經》發明心地。偶師弟子玄策相訪，與其劇談，出言暗合諸祖。策云：「仁者得法師誰？」曰：「我聽方等經論，各有師承。後於《維摩經》悟佛心宗，未有證明者。」策云：「威音王已前即得，威音王已後，無師自悟，盡是天然外道。」曰：「願仁者為我證據。」策云：「我言輕。曹溪有六祖大師，四方雲集，並是受法者。若去，則與偕行。」覺遂同策來參，繞師三匝，振錫而立。師曰：「夫沙門者，具三千威儀、八萬細行。大德自何方而來，生大我慢？」覺曰：「生死事大，無常迅速。」師曰：「何不體取無生，了無速乎？」曰：「體即無生，了本無速。」師曰：「如是，如是！」玄覺方具威儀禮拜，須臾告辭。師曰：「返太速乎？」曰：「本自非動，豈有速耶？」師曰：「誰知非動？」曰：「仁者自生分別。」師曰：「汝甚得無生之意。」曰：「無生豈有意耶？」師曰：「無意，誰當分別？」曰：「分別亦非意。」師曰：「善哉！少留一宿。」時謂一宿覺。後著《證道歌》，盛行於世(諡曰無相大師，時稱為真覺焉)。

Chan Master Xuanjue of Yongjia was a son of the Dai family of Wenzhou. In his youth he studied the sutras and treatises, and was well versed in the Tiantai method of calming and insight. By reading the Vimalakirti Sutra he came to understand the mind-ground. It happened that the Master's disciple Xuance visited and talked at length with him, and found that his words tallied silently with the patriarchs of all generations. Xuance asked: "Who is the teacher from whom you got the Dharma?" He said: "I heard the Vaipulya sutras and treatises, each with its own lineage. Later on the Vimalakirti Sutra I awakened to the mind-school of the Buddha, and no one has yet verified it for me." Xuance said: "Before the Buddha Bhishmagarjitasvararaja, one could awaken by oneself; after the Buddha Bhishmagarjitasvararaja, those who awaken without a teacher are all natural heretics." He said: "I hope you will bear witness for me." Xuance said: "My words carry little weight. At Caoxi there is the Sixth Patriarch, and students from the four directions gather like clouds, all going to receive the Dharma. If you go, I will go with you." Xuanjue then came with Xuance to see the Master, circled the Master three times, shook his staff and stood still. The Master said: "A renunciant should possess three thousand dignified bearings and eighty thousand fine practices. Virtuous one, where do you come from, that you give rise to such great pride?" Xuanjue said: "Birth and death are the great matter, and impermanence comes swiftly." The Master said: "Then why not realize that which is unborn and unceasing, and penetrate that in which there is originally no swiftness or slowness?" He said: "Realizing it is itself the unborn; penetrating it, there is originally no swiftness or slowness." The Master said: "Just so, just so!" Only then did Xuanjue complete the formalities and bow, and after a short while he took his leave. The Master said: "Are you not going back too quickly?" He said: "Originally there was no moving; how can one speak of quickness?" The Master said: "Who knows that there is no moving?" He said: "It is you, sir, who give rise to discrimination." The Master said: "You have gained the meaning of the unborn very well." He said: "How can the unborn have any meaning?" The Master said: "If there is no meaning, who is discriminating?" He said: "Discrimination itself is not a meaning either." The Master said: "Good! Stay one night." At that time people called him the "Awakened by One Night's Stay." Later he wrote the Song of Realizing the Way, which circulated widely in the world. (His posthumous title is Great Master Wuxiang, and he was called True Awakened at the time.)

禪者智隍，初參五祖，自謂已得正受。菴居長坐，積二十年。師弟子玄策，遊方至河朔，聞隍之名，造菴問云：「汝在此作什麼？」隍曰：「入定。」策云：「汝雲入定，為有心入耶？無心入耶？若無心入者，一切無情草木瓦石，應合得定；若有心入者，一切有情含識之流，亦應得定。」隍曰：「我正入定時，不見有有無之心。」策云：「不見有有無之心，即是常定。何有出入？若有出入，即非大定。」隍無對，良久，問曰：「師嗣誰耶？」策云：「我師曹溪六祖。」隍云：「六祖以何為禪定？」策云：「我師所說，妙湛圓寂，體用如如。五陰本空，六塵非有，不出不入，不定不亂。禪性無住，離住禪寂；禪性無生，離生禪想。心如虛空，亦無虛空之量。」隍聞是說，徑來謁師。師問云：「仁者何來？」隍具述前緣。師云：「誠如所言。汝但心如虛空，不著空見，應用無礙，動靜無心，凡聖情忘，能所俱泯，性相如如，無不定時也(一本無汝但以下三十五字。止云：師憫其遠來，遂垂開決)。」隍於是大悟，二十年所得心，都無影響。其夜河北士庶，聞空中有聲云：「隍禪師今日得道。」隍後禮辭，復歸河北，開化四眾。一僧問師云：「黃梅意旨，甚麼人得？」師云：「會佛法人得。」僧云：「和尚還得否？」師云：「我不會佛法。」

The meditator Zhihuang first called on the Fifth Patriarch and believed himself to have already attained right reception. He sat long in his hermitage, for twenty years. The Master's disciple Xuance, traveling around the Heshuo region, heard Zhihuang's name and came to the hermitage and asked: "What are you doing here?" Zhihuang said: "Entering concentration." Xuance said: "You say you enter concentration; do you enter with a mind or without a mind? If you enter without a mind, then all the insentient grasses, trees, tiles and stones should also attain concentration; if you enter with a mind, then all sentient beings that possess consciousness should also attain concentration." Zhihuang said: "When I am just entering concentration, I do not see a mind of 'having' or 'not having.'" Xuance said: "If you do not see a mind of 'having' or 'not having,' then you are always in concentration; what entering or leaving concentration is there? If there is leaving and entering, it is not great concentration." Zhihuang had no reply, and after a long time asked: "From whom did you inherit the Dharma, teacher?" Xuance said: "My teacher is the Sixth Patriarch of Caoxi." Zhihuang said: "What does the Sixth Patriarch take as meditative concentration?" Xuance said: "What my teacher says is: wondrously clear, perfect and still, substance and function are suchness without duality. The five aggregates are originally empty and the six dusts are not truly existent; neither leaving nor entering, neither concentrated nor disturbed. The nature of meditation abides nowhere, so one should leave dwelling in meditative stillness; the nature of meditation is originally unborn, so one should leave giving rise to the thought 'I am in meditation.' The mind is like empty space, yet has no measure of 'empty space' either." Hearing these words, Zhihuang went straight to see the Master. The Master asked: "Virtuous one, where do you come from?" Zhihuang told in detail all that had happened. The Master said: "It is indeed as he said. Only let your mind be like empty space without clinging to a view of emptiness, let its use be unobstructed, do not give rise to mind in either movement or stillness, forget the emotional clinging to ordinary and holy, extinguish subject and object, with nature and form as suchness without duality, and then there is no time when you are not in concentration." (Some texts lack the thirty-five characters from "only let your mind" on, saying only that the Master took pity on his coming from afar and so instructed him and resolved his doubts.) Zhihuang then awakened greatly, and the mind he had attained over twenty years vanished without a trace. That night the scholars and common people of Hebei heard a voice in the air saying: "Chan Master Zhihuang has attained the Way today." Later Zhihuang took his leave and returned to Hebei, teaching the fourfold assembly. A monk asked the Master: "Who has obtained the meaning of Huangmei?" The Master said: "One who understands the Buddha Dharma has obtained it." The monk said: "Have you obtained it, Master?" The Master said: "I do not understand the Buddha Dharma."

師一日欲濯所授之衣而無美泉，因至寺後五里許，見山林欝茂，瑞氣盤旋。師振錫卓地，泉應手而出，積以為池，乃跪膝浣衣石上。忽有一僧來禮拜，云：「方辯是西蜀人，昨於南天竺國，見達磨大師，囑方辯速往唐土。吾傳大迦葉正法眼藏及僧伽梨，見傳六代，於韶州曹溪，汝去瞻禮。方辯遠來，願見我師傳來衣缽。」師乃出示，次問：「上人攻何事業？」曰：「善塑。」師正色曰：「汝試塑看。」辯罔措。過數日，塑就真相，可高七寸，曲盡其妙。師笑曰：「汝只解塑性，不解佛性。」師舒手摩方辯頂，曰：「永為人天福田。」

One day the Master wanted to wash the robe he had received but had no good spring water, so he walked about five li behind the monastery and saw the mountain forest lush and auspicious air circling. The Master shook his staff and planted it in the ground, and spring water gushed out at the touch and gathered into a pool, and he knelt on a rock and washed the robe. Suddenly a monk came to bow, saying: "Fangbian is a native of western Shu. Yesterday in the land of southern India I saw the Great Master Bodhidharma, who told Fangbian to hurry to the Land of Tang: 'The right Dharma eye treasury of Mahakasyapa and the sanghati robe that I transmitted have been passed down to the sixth generation, at Caoxi in Shaozhou; go and pay your respects.' Fangbian has come from afar and wishes to see the robe and bowl transmitted by my teacher." The Master then brought them out to show him, and then asked: "What is your craft, venerable one?" He said: "I am good at making statues." The Master said sternly: "Try making one." Fangbian was at a loss. After a few days he made a likeness about seven inches tall, exquisite in every respect. The Master said with a smile: "You understand only the 'nature' of making statues; you do not understand Buddha-nature." The Master reached out and stroked Fangbian's head and said: "May you be a field of blessings for humans and gods forever."

(師仍以衣酬之。辯取衣分為三，一披塑像，一自留，一用椶裹瘞地中。誓曰：「後得此衣，乃吾出世，住持於此，重建殿宇。」宋嘉祐八年，有僧惟先，修殿掘地，得衣如新。像在高泉寺，祈禱輒應)。

(The Master also thanked him with the robe. Fangbian divided the robe into three parts: one part he draped on the statue, one part he kept for himself, and one part he wrapped in palm fiber and buried in the ground, vowing: "Whoever later obtains this robe will be me coming again into the world, to preside here and rebuild the halls." In the eighth year of Jiayou in the Song dynasty, a monk Weixian, repairing the hall, dug into the ground and found the robe, as if new. The statue is at Gaoquan Temple, and prayers there are often answered.)

有僧舉臥輪禪師偈曰：

A monk cited a verse by Chan Master Wolun:

「臥輪有伎倆，能斷百思想，

Wolun has the skill to cut off all kinds of thought;

對境心不起，菩提日日長。」

facing realms the mind does not stir, and bodhi grows day by day."

師聞之，曰：「此偈未明心地，若依而行之，是加繫縛。」因示一偈曰：

The Master, hearing it, said: "This verse has not yet understood the mind-ground; if one follows it, it will only add to one's bonds." So he presented a verse:

「惠能沒伎倆，不斷百思想，

Huineng has no skill, and does not cut off any kinds of thought;

對境心數起，菩提作麼長。」

facing realms the mind arises again and again, and what growth of bodhi is there to speak of?"

時，祖師居曹溪寶林，神秀大師在荊南玉泉寺。於時兩宗盛化，人皆稱南能北秀，故有南北二宗頓漸之分，而學者莫知宗趣。師謂眾曰：「法本一宗，人有南北。法即一種，見有遲疾。何名頓漸？法無頓漸，人有利鈍，故名頓漸。」然秀之徒眾，往往譏南宗祖師，不識一字，有何所長。秀曰：「他得無師之智，深悟上乘。吾不如也。且吾師五祖，親傳衣法。豈徒然哉！吾恨不能遠去親近，虛受國恩。汝等諸人，毋滯於此，可往曹溪參決。」一日，命門人志誠曰：「汝聰明多智，可為吾到曹溪聽法。若有所聞，盡心記取，還為吾說。」志誠稟命至曹溪，隨眾參請，不言來處。時祖師告眾曰：「今有盜法之人，潛在此會。」志誠即出禮拜，具陳其事。師曰：「汝從玉泉來，應是細作。」對曰：「不是。」師曰：「何得不是？」對曰：「未說即是，說了不是。」師曰：「汝師若為示眾？」對曰：「常指誨大眾，住心觀靜，長坐不臥。」師曰：「住心觀靜，是病非禪；長坐拘身，於理何益？聽吾偈曰：

At that time, the Patriarch was staying at Baolin in Caoxi, and Great Master Shenxiu was at Yuquan Temple in Jingnan. At that time the teachings of both lines flourished, and people called them "Neng in the south, Xiu in the north," so there arose the two schools of north and south, sudden and gradual, and students did not know the main point and direction of each. The Master said to the assembly: "The Dharma is originally one school, but people are of north and south. The Dharma is of one kind, but seeing one's nature may be fast or slow. What is sudden and gradual? The Dharma has no sudden or gradual; people have sharp or dull faculties, and so it is called sudden or gradual." Yet Shenxiu's disciples often mocked the Patriarch of the southern school, saying he did not know a single character, so what merit did he have. Shenxiu said: "He has attained the wisdom that comes without a teacher, deeply awakened to the supreme vehicle, and I cannot match him. Moreover, my teacher the Fifth Patriarch personally transmitted the robe and Dharma to him; was that without reason! I regret that I cannot travel far to be near him and have in vain received the nurture of the state. All of you, do not linger here; you may go to Caoxi to inquire and resolve your doubts." One day he instructed his disciple Zhicheng: "You are clever and wise; go to Caoxi for me to listen to the Dharma. If you hear anything, record it faithfully, and come back and tell me." Zhicheng received the order and reached Caoxi, joined the assembly to ask for instruction, and did not say where he came from. At that time the Patriarch told the assembly: "Today there is a Dharma thief hidden in this gathering." Zhicheng immediately came forward, bowed, and gave a true account. The Master said: "You come from Yuquan, so you must be a spy." He replied: "No." The Master said: "How is it not?" He replied: "Before saying it, I was; having said it, I am not." The Master said: "How does your teacher instruct the assembly?" He replied: "He often instructs the assembly: fix the mind and contemplate purity, and sit long without lying down." The Master said: "To fix the mind and contemplate purity is a sickness and not meditation; to sit long restraining the body, what benefit is that to the principle? Listen to my verse:

「生來坐不臥，死去臥不坐，

In life one sits and does not lie down; in death one lies down and does not sit;

一具臭骨頭，何為立功課？」

it is only a stinking set of bones; why build a daily practice upon it?"

志誠再拜曰：「弟子在秀大師處學道九年，不得契悟。今聞和尚一說，便契本心。弟子生死事大，和尚大慈，更為教示。」師云：「吾聞汝師教示學人戒定慧法，未審汝師說戒定慧行相如何？與吾說看。」誠曰：「秀大師說，諸惡莫作名為戒，諸善奉行名為慧，自淨其意名為定。彼說如此，未審和尚以何法誨人？」師曰：「吾若言有法與人，即為誑汝。但且隨方解縛，假名三昧。如汝師所說戒定慧，實不可思議。吾所見戒定慧又別。」志誠曰：「戒定慧只合一種，如何更別？」師曰：「汝師戒定慧接大乘人，吾戒定慧接最上乘人。悟解不同，見有遲疾。汝聽吾說，與彼同否？吾所說法，不離自性。離體說法，名為相說，自性常迷。須知一切萬法，皆從自性起用，是真戒定慧法。聽吾偈曰：

Zhicheng bowed again and said: "This disciple studied the Way for nine years under Master Shenxiu and could not awaken. Today, hearing the Venerable speak once, I accord with my original mind. For this disciple, birth and death are a great matter; Venerable, in your great kindness and compassion, please teach me further." The Master said: "I have heard that your teacher teaches students the Dharma of precepts, concentration and wisdom, but I do not know what your teacher's precepts, concentration and wisdom are like. Tell me." Zhicheng said: "Master Shenxiu said: not doing any evil is called precepts, doing all good is called wisdom, and purifying one's own mind is called concentration. That is what he said; I do not know what Dharma the Venerable uses to teach people." The Master said: "If I said I had some Dharma to give people, I would be deceiving you. I only loosen people's bonds according to each one's situation, borrowing the name 'samadhi'. As for the precepts, concentration and wisdom your teacher speaks of, they are truly inconceivable; but what I see as precepts, concentration and wisdom is different." Zhicheng said: "There should be only one kind of precepts, concentration and wisdom; how can they differ?" The Master said: "Your teacher's precepts, concentration and wisdom receive people of the Great Vehicle; my precepts, concentration and wisdom receive people of the Supreme Vehicle. Awakening and understanding differ, and seeing one's nature is quick for some and slow for others. Listen to what I say and see whether it is the same as his. The Dharma I speak does not depart from self-nature; to speak of the Dharma apart from the essence is called teaching attached to appearances, and then self-nature is always in delusion. You must know that all the ten thousand dharmas arise in function from self-nature; this is the true Dharma of precepts, concentration and wisdom. Listen to my verse:

「心地無非自性戒，心地無痴自性慧，

No wrong in the mind-ground is the precepts of self-nature; no folly in the mind-ground is the wisdom of self-nature;

心地無亂自性定，不增不減自金剛，

no distraction in the mind-ground is the concentration of self-nature. Neither increasing nor decreasing, the body itself is diamond;

身去身來本三昧。」

the body comes and the body goes, yet it is originally within samadhi."

誠聞偈，悔謝，乃呈一偈曰：

Hearing the verse, Zhicheng repented and begged pardon, and then offered a verse:

「五蘊幻身，幻何究竟？迴趣真如，

The illusory body formed by the five aggregates, what ultimate is there in an illusion? Turning back toward True Suchness,

法還不淨。」

even this 'Dharma' is still not pure."

師然之，復語誠曰：「汝師戒定慧，勸小根智人；吾戒定慧，勸大根智人。若悟自性，亦不立菩提涅槃，亦不立解脫知見。無一法可得，方能建立萬法。若解此意，亦名佛身，亦名菩提涅槃，亦名解脫知見。見性之人，立亦得、不立亦得，去來自由，無滯無礙，應用隨作，應語隨答，普見化身，不離自性，即得自在神通遊戲三昧，是名見性。」志誠再啟師曰：「如何是不立義？」師曰：「自性無非、無痴無亂，念念般若觀照，常離法相，自由自在，縱橫盡得，有何可立？自性自悟，頓悟頓修，亦無漸次，所以不立一切法。諸法寂滅，有何次第？」志誠禮拜，願為執侍，朝夕不懈(誠吉州太和人也)。

The Master approved him, and said further to Zhicheng: "Your teacher's precepts, concentration and wisdom exhort people of small capacity and wisdom; my precepts, concentration and wisdom exhort people of great capacity and wisdom. If one awakens to self-nature, one does not even set up bodhi or nirvana, nor even set up the knowledge and vision of liberation. Only when there is no single dharma to be obtained can the ten thousand dharmas be established. If you understand this meaning, you may call it the Buddha body, or bodhi and nirvana, or the knowledge and vision of liberation. One who has seen his nature may set up or not set up, comes and goes freely, without hindrance or obstruction, using what should be used and answering what should be answered, universally manifesting transformation bodies without leaving self-nature; thus he obtains free spiritual powers and the samadhi of play, and this is called seeing one's nature." Zhicheng asked further: "What does 'not setting up' mean?" The Master said: "Self-nature has no wrong, no folly and no distraction; in every thought it is illumined by prajna, always apart from the characteristics of dharmas, free and at ease, moving freely without obstruction; what is there to set up? Self-nature awakens by itself, with sudden awakening and sudden practice and no gradual stages, so one does not set up any dharma. All dharmas are originally still and extinct; what stages could there be?" Zhicheng bowed, wishing to attend at his side, morning and evening without slackness. (Zhicheng was a native of Taihe in Jizhou.)

僧志徹，江西人，本姓張，名行昌，少任俠。自南北分化，二宗主雖亡彼我，而徒侶競起愛憎。時北宗門人，自立秀師為第六祖，而忌祖師傳衣為天下聞，乃囑行昌來刺師。師心通，預知其事，即置金十兩於座間。時夜暮，行昌入祖室，將欲加害。師舒頸就之，行昌揮刃者三，悉無所損。師曰：「正劍不邪，邪劍不正。只負汝金，不負汝命。」行昌驚僕，久而方蘇，求哀悔過，即願出家。師遂與金，言：「汝且去，恐徒眾翻害於汝。汝可他日易形而來，吾當攝受。」行昌稟旨宵遁。後投僧出家，具戒精進。一日，憶師之言，遠來禮覲。師曰：「吾久念汝，汝來何晚？」曰：「昨蒙和尚捨罪，今雖出家苦行，終難報德，其惟傳法度生乎？弟子常覽《涅槃經》，未曉常無常義。乞和尚慈悲，略為解說。」師曰：「無常者，即佛性也。有常者，即一切善惡諸法分別心也。」曰：「和尚所說，大違經文。」師曰：「吾傳佛心印，安敢違於佛經？」曰：「經說佛性是常；和尚卻言無常。善惡之法乃至菩提心，皆是無常；和尚卻言是常。此即相違，令學人轉加疑惑。」師曰：「《涅槃經》吾昔聽尼無盡藏讀誦一遍，便為講說，無一字一義不合經文。乃至為汝，終無二說。」曰：「學人識量淺昧，願和尚委曲開示。」師曰：「汝知否？佛性若常，更說什麼善惡諸法，乃至窮劫無有一人發菩提心者；故吾說無常，正是佛說真常之道也。又，一切諸法若無常者，即物物皆有自性，容受生死，而真常性有不遍之處。故吾說常者，正是佛說真無常義。佛比為凡夫、外道執於邪常，諸二乘人於常計無常，共成八倒，故於《涅槃》了義教中，破彼偏見，而顯說真常、真樂、真我、真淨。汝今依言背義，以斷滅無常及確定死常，而錯解佛之圓妙最後微言。縱覽千遍，有何所益？」行昌忽然大悟，說偈曰：

The monk Zhiche was a native of Jiangxi, originally surnamed Zhang, named Xingchang, who in his youth loved to play the knight-errant. Since the teaching was divided between south and north, although the masters of the two schools had dissolved their views of each other, their followers vied in giving rise to love and hatred. At that time, the disciples of the northern school on their own account proclaimed Shenxiu the Sixth Patriarch, and, fearing that the matter of the Patriarch's transmitted robe was known to all, they commissioned Xingchang to go and assassinate the Master. The Master, who had spiritual powers in his mind, knew of this in advance, and placed ten taels of gold on his seat. That night, Xingchang entered the Patriarch's room to do violence. The Master stretched out his neck for him to cut; Xingchang swung his blade three times and did no harm at all. The Master said: "The upright sword is not crooked, and the crooked sword is not upright. I owe you only gold, not a life." Xingchang fell to the ground in terror, and after a long time came to, pleading and repenting, and at once wished to leave home. The Master gave him the gold and said: "For now, leave; I fear the community will turn and harm you. You may come again another day in a changed appearance, and I will take you in." Xingchang took the instruction and fled that night. Later he joined a monk and left home, received the full precepts and practiced diligently. One day, remembering the Master's words, he came from afar to pay his respects. The Master said: "I have been thinking of you for a long time; why did you come so late?" He said: "Formerly I received the Venerable's pardon of my offense, and now though I have left home and practice austerities, I can hardly repay the kindness; perhaps only by transmitting the Dharma and saving beings? This disciple often reads the Nirvana Sutra but does not understand the meaning of 'permanent' and 'impermanent'; I beg the Venerable in compassion to explain briefly." The Master said: "What is called impermanence is precisely the Buddha-nature; what is called permanence is precisely the discriminating mind about all good and evil dharmas." He said: "What the Venerable says greatly contradicts the sutra." The Master said: "What I transmit is the Buddha's mind-seal; how would I dare contradict the Buddha's sutra?" He said: "The sutra says Buddha-nature is permanent, yet the Venerable says it is impermanent; the sutra says good and evil dharmas, even the bodhi mind, are impermanent, yet the Venerable says they are permanent. This is a contradiction and makes the student all the more confused." The Master said: "The Nirvana Sutra I once heard recited once by the nun Wujinzang, and I explained it for her, and not one word or meaning disagreed with the sutra; even today in explaining it to you, there has never been a second explanation." He said: "This student's understanding is shallow; I wish the Venerable would explain in detail." The Master said: "Do you know? If Buddha-nature were permanent, what would be the use of speaking of good and evil dharmas, and not a single person would give rise to the bodhi mind even to the end of the kalpas; so when I say 'impermanent', that is exactly the true permanent Way spoken by the Buddha. Again, if all dharmas were impermanent, then each thing would have its own nature and each would accept birth and death by itself, and the nature of true permanence would have places it did not reach; so when I say 'permanent', that is exactly the meaning of true impermanence spoken by the Buddha. It is precisely because ordinary people and non-Buddhists cling to a false permanence, and people of the Two Vehicles in turn reckon impermanence on top of permanence, together making the eight inversions, that in the definitive teaching of the Nirvana Sutra he broke down their partial views and plainly proclaimed true permanence, true bliss, true self and true purity. Now you rely on the letter and turn away from the meaning, taking annihilationist impermanence and fixed, rigid permanence, and misread the Buddha's perfect, wonderful and final subtle words. Even if you read it a thousand times, what benefit would there be?" Xingchang suddenly awakened greatly and spoke a verse:

「因守無常心，佛說有常性，

Because beings cling to the mind of 'impermanence', the Buddha said there is a 'permanent' nature;

不知方便者，猶春池拾礫。

one who does not understand that this is expedient teaching is like picking up pebbles by a spring pond.

我今不施功，佛性而現前，

Now I have not put in any effort, and Buddha-nature appears of itself;

非師相授與，我亦無所得。」

this was not given to me by my teacher, and I have not gained anything."

師曰：「汝今徹也，宜名志徹。」徹禮謝而退。

The Master said: "Now that you are thorough, you should be named Zhiche." Zhiche bowed in thanks and withdrew.

有一童子，名神會，襄陽高氏子。年十三，自玉泉來參禮。師曰：「知識遠來艱辛，還將得本來否？若有本則合識主。試說看。」會曰：「以無住為本，見即是主。」師曰：「這沙彌爭合取次語？」會乃問曰：「和尚坐禪，還見不見？」師以柱杖打三下，云：「吾打汝痛不痛？」對曰：「亦痛亦不痛。」師曰：「吾亦見亦不見。」神會問：「如何是亦見亦不見？」師云：「吾之所見，常見自心過愆，不見他人是非好惡，是以亦見亦不見。汝言：『亦痛亦不痛。』如何？汝若不痛，同其木石；若痛，則同凡夫，即起恚恨。汝向前見、不見是二邊，痛、不痛是生滅。汝自性且不見，敢爾弄人！」神會禮拜悔謝。師又曰：「汝若心迷不見，問善知識覓路。汝若心悟，即自見性依法修行。汝自迷不見自心，卻來問吾見與不見。吾見自知，豈代汝迷？汝若自見，亦不代吾迷。何不自知自見，乃問吾見與不見？」神會再禮百餘拜，求謝過愆。服勤給侍，不離左右。

There was a boy named Shenhui, son of the Gao family of Xiangyang. At thirteen he came from Yuquan Temple to pay homage. The Master said: "Good teacher, you have come from afar and must be weary; have you brought that 'original' with you? If there is an original, you should know the master. Try to say it." Shenhui said: "Non-abiding is the original, and seeing is the master." The Master said: "How can this novice speak so carelessly?" Shenhui then asked: "When the Venerable sits in meditation, does he see or not see?" The Master struck him three times with his staff and said: "When I strike you, does it hurt or not?" He answered: "It both hurts and does not hurt." The Master said: "I both see and do not see." Shenhui asked: "What does it mean to both see and not see?" The Master said: "What I see is always my own faults, and I do not look at others' rights and wrongs, goods and bads; so I say I both see and do not see. As for what you call 'both hurts and does not hurt', what is that? If it does not hurt, you are the same as wood or stone; if it hurts, you are the same as an ordinary person and will give rise to resentment. The 'seeing' and 'not seeing' you spoke of just now fall on two sides, and 'hurting' and 'not hurting' are arising and ceasing. You have not even seen your own nature, and you dare to come and toy with people!" Shenhui bowed and repented. The Master said further: "If your mind is deluded and does not see, you should ask a good teacher for the path; if your mind is awakened, you should see your nature yourself and practice according to the Dharma. You are deluded yourself and cannot see your own mind, yet you come and ask me whether I see or not. I know for myself whether I see or not; how could that substitute for your delusion? If you see it yourself, it cannot substitute for my delusion either. Why do you not know and see for yourself, and instead come and ask me whether I see or not?" Shenhui bowed over a hundred more times, begging pardon for his fault, and from then on served diligently, never leaving his side.

一日，師告眾曰：「吾有一物，無頭無尾，無名無字，無背無面。諸人還識否？」神會出曰：「是諸佛之本源，神會之佛性。」師曰：「向汝道：『無名無字』，汝便喚作本源佛性。汝向去有把茆蓋頭，也只成箇知解宗徒。」祖師滅後，會入京洛，大弘曹溪頓教，著《顯宗記》，盛行於世(是為荷澤禪師)。

One day the Master told the assembly: "I have a thing that has no head and no tail, no name and no designation, no back and no front. Do you all recognize it?" Shenhui came forward and said: "This is the source of all Buddhas, and it is Shenhui's Buddha-nature." The Master said: "I told you it has 'no name and no designation', and you insist on calling it the source and Buddha-nature. In the future, even if you have a thatched hut to cover your head, you will only be a follower of the school of intellectual understanding." After the Patriarch passed away, Shenhui went to the region of the two capitals, greatly spread the sudden teaching of Caoxi, and wrote the Xianzong Ji (Record Revealing the Doctrine), which circulated widely. (This is Chan Master Heze.)

師見諸宗難問鹹起惡心，多集座下愍而謂曰：「學道之人，一切善念惡念應當盡除。無名可名，名於自性，無二之性，是名實性。於實性上建立一切教門，言下便須自見。」諸人聞說，總皆作禮，請事為師。

The Master, seeing that those from the various schools who came to challenge him had all developed evil intentions and gathered in large numbers below his seat, said to them with compassion: "Students of the Way should eliminate all good thoughts and evil thoughts. That which has no name to call it by is only reluctantly called self-nature; this nature without opposites is called real nature. On the basis of real nature, all teaching gates are established, and on hearing them one should see it oneself at once." The assembly, hearing this, all bowed and asked to take him as their teacher.

神龍元年上元日，則天、中宗詔云：「朕請安、秀二師宮中供養。萬機之暇，每究一乘。二師推讓云：『南方有能禪師，密授忍大師衣法，傳佛心印，可請彼問。』今遣內侍薛簡，馳詔迎請，願師慈念，速赴上京。」師上表辭疾，願終林麓。薛簡曰：「京城禪德皆云：『欲得會道，必須坐禪習定。若不因禪定而得解脫者，未之有也。』未審師所說法如何？」師曰：「道由心悟，豈在坐也。經云：『若言如來若坐若臥，是行邪道。』何故？無所從來，亦無所去。無生無滅，是如來清淨禪。諸法空寂，是如來清淨坐。究竟無證，豈況坐耶。」簡曰：「弟子回京，主上必問。願師慈悲，指示心要，傳奏兩宮及京城學道者。譬如一燈，然百千燈，冥者皆明，明明無盡。」師云：「道無明暗，明暗是代謝之義。明明無盡，亦是有盡，相待立名故。《淨名經》云：『法無有比，無相待故。』」簡曰：「明喻智慧，暗喻煩惱。修道之人，倘不以智慧照破煩惱，無始生死憑何出離？」師曰：「煩惱即是菩提，無二無別。若以智慧照破煩惱者，此是二乘見解。羊鹿等機，上智大根，悉不如是。」簡曰：「如何是大乘見解？」師曰：「明與無明，凡夫見二；智者了達，其性無二。無二之性，即是實性。實性者，處凡愚而不減，在賢聖而不增，住煩惱而不亂，居禪定而不寂。不斷不常，不來不去，不在中間及其內外，不生不滅，性相如如，常住不遷，名之曰道。」簡曰：「師說不生不滅，何異外道？」師曰：「外道所說不生不滅者，將滅止生，以生顯滅，滅猶不滅，生說不生。我說不生不滅者，本自無生，今亦不滅，所以不同外道。汝若欲知心要，但一切善惡都莫思量，自然得入清淨心體，湛然常寂，妙用恆沙。」簡蒙指教，豁然大悟。禮辭歸闕，表奏師語。

On the fifteenth day of the first month of the first year of Shenlong, Empress Wu Zetian and Emperor Zhongzong issued an edict saying: "We have invited the two Masters Hui'an and Shenxiu to be supported in the palace, and in the intervals of managing the myriad affairs we often investigate the Dharma of the One Vehicle. The two Masters declined, saying: 'In the south there is Chan Master Huineng, who secretly received the robe and Dharma from Master Hongren and transmits the Buddha's mind-seal; you may invite him and ask.' Now We send the palace attendant Xue Jian to rush the edict and invite him; we hope the Master, in compassion and mindfulness, will hasten to the capital." The Master submitted a memorial declining, saying he was ill and wished to end his days in the mountains and forests. Xue Jian said: "The great virtuous ones of the Chan schools in the capital all say: 'To realize the Way, one must sit in meditation and practice concentration. To attain liberation without relying on meditation and concentration has never happened.' I do not know what the Master's Dharma is like." The Master said: "The Way is awakened to by the mind; how could it lie in sitting? The sutra says: 'If one says the Tathagata sits or lies, this is practicing a false path.' Why? Because the Tathagata comes from nowhere and goes nowhere; neither arising nor ceasing, this is the Tathagata's pure meditation. All dharmas are empty and still, and this is the Tathagata's pure sitting. In the end there is not even 'realization', let alone sitting." Xue Jian said: "When this disciple returns to the capital, the Emperor will surely ask. I hope the Master, in compassion, will point out the essentials of the mind, so that I may relate them to the two palaces and to those studying the Way in the capital. It is like one lamp lighting hundreds of thousands of lamps, so that all that is dark becomes bright, and the brightness continues without end." The Master said: "The Way has no brightness and darkness; brightness and darkness mean taking turns replacing each other. 'Brightness without end' too in fact has an end, because it is a name established in dependence on something. The Vimalakirti Sutra says: 'Dharma has nothing to compare it to, because it is not in dependence on anything.'" Xue Jian said: "Brightness is a metaphor for wisdom and darkness a metaphor for afflictions. If a practitioner of the Way does not use wisdom to illuminate and break through afflictions, by what means can he escape from birth and death from beginningless time?" The Master said: "Afflictions are bodhi; there is no difference and no distinction. To say that one uses wisdom to illuminate and break through afflictions is the view of the Two Vehicles, of the capacity of the goat cart and deer cart; people of superior wisdom and great capacity do not view it so." Xue Jian said: "What is the view of the Great Vehicle?" The Master said: "Brightness and non-brightness, ordinary people see as two; the wise understand that their nature is not two. This not-two nature is real nature. What is called real nature neither decreases in the foolish and ordinary nor increases in the worthy and sage, is not scattered when dwelling in afflictions and not dead still when abiding in concentration. It is neither cut off nor permanent, neither coming nor going, neither in the middle nor inside or outside, neither arising nor ceasing; nature and characteristics are such as they are and not two, ever-abiding and unchanging; this is called the Way." Xue Jian said: "The Master says neither arising nor ceasing; how does this differ from non-Buddhists?" The Master said: "The non-arising and non-ceasing spoken of by non-Buddhists is using 'ceasing' to halt 'arising' and using 'arising' to show 'ceasing'; ceasing is still not truly ceased, and arising is called non-arising. The non-arising and non-ceasing I speak of is that originally there is no arising and now there is no ceasing, so it is different from non-Buddhists. If you wish to know the essentials of the mind, simply do not think about any good or evil, and you will naturally enter the pure body of the mind, clear and ever still, with wondrous function numerous as the sands of the Ganges." Xue Jian received this instruction and was suddenly greatly awakened. He bowed in farewell and returned to court, submitting a memorial reporting the Master's words.

其年九月三日，有詔獎諭師曰：「師辭老疾，為朕修道，國之福田。師若淨名託疾毘耶，闡揚大乘，傳諸佛心，談不二法。薛簡傳師指授如來知見，朕積善餘慶，宿種善根，值師出世，頓悟上乘。感荷師恩，頂戴無已，並奉磨衲袈裟及水晶缽，勅韶州刺史修飾寺宇，賜師舊居為國恩寺。」

On the third day of the ninth month of that year, an edict was issued praising the Master: "The Master declined on account of age and illness and cultivates the Way for Us; he is a field of blessing for the state. The Master is like Vimalakirti who feigned illness in the city of Vaisali, expounding the Great Vehicle, transmitting the mind of all Buddhas and speaking of the Dharma of non-duality. Xue Jian transmitted the Tathagata's knowledge and vision that the Master pointed out. We, from the surplus blessing of accumulated goodness and the good roots planted in past lives, met the Master's appearance in the world and were able to awaken suddenly to the Supreme Vehicle. Mindful of the Master's kindness, We bear it on Our head without ceasing, and respectfully offer a ground-cloth kasaya and a crystal bowl, and order the Prefect of Shaozhou to refurbish the temple buildings and to bestow on the Master's old residence the name Guo'en Temple (Temple of National Gratitude)."

師一日喚門人法海、志誠、法達、神會、智常、智通、志徹、志道、法珍、法如等，曰：「汝等不同餘人，吾滅度後，各為一方師。吾今教汝說法，不失本宗：先須舉三科法門，動用三十六對，出沒即離兩邊。說一切法，莫離自性。忽有人問汝法，出語盡雙，皆取對法，來去相因。究竟二法盡除，更無去處。三科法門者，陰、界、入也。陰是五陰——色、受、想、行、識是也。入是十二入，外六塵——色、聲、香、味、觸、法；內六門——眼、耳、鼻、舌、身、意是也。界是十八界，六塵、六門、六識是也。自性能含萬法，名含藏識。若起思量，即是轉識。生六識，出六門，見六塵。如是一十八界，皆從自性起用。自性若邪，起十八邪；自性若正，起十八正。若惡用即眾生用，善用即佛用。用由何等？由自性有，對法外境。無情五對：天與地對，日與月對，明與暗對，陰與陽對，水與火對；此是五對也。法相語言十二對：語與法對，有與無對，有色與無色對，有相與無相對，有漏與無漏對，色與空對，動與靜對，清與濁對，凡與聖對，僧與俗對，老與少對，大與小對；此是十二對也。自性起用十九對：長與短對，邪與正對，痴與慧對，愚與智對，亂與定對，慈與毒對，戒與非對，直與曲對，實與虛對，險與平對，煩惱與菩提對，常與無常對，悲與害對，喜與瞋對，捨與慳對，進與退對，生與滅對，法身與色身對，化身與報身對；此是十九對也。」師言：「此三十六對法，若解用即道，貫一切經法，出入即離兩邊。自性動用，共人言語，外於相離相，內於空離空。若全著相，即長邪見；若全執空，即長無明。執空之人有謗經，直言不用文字。既雲不用文字，人亦不合語言。只此語言，便是文字之相。又云：『直道不立文字。』即此不立兩字，亦是文字。見人所說，便即謗他言著文字。

One day the Master called his disciples Fahai, Zhicheng, Fada, Shenhui, Zhichang, Zhitong, Zhiche, Zhidao, Fazhen, Faru and others, and said: "You are different from others. After my passing, each of you is to be a teacher in one region. Now I will teach you how to teach the Dharma so that you do not lose our original school: first, bring up the Dharma gate of the three categories, use the thirty-six pairs, and in coming out and going in leave the two sides. In speaking of all dharmas, do not depart from self-nature. If someone suddenly asks you about the Dharma, every utterance should come in pairs, taking opposites, so that coming and going depend on each other; when you reach the ultimate, remove both kinds of dharma, so that there is nowhere further to go. The Dharma gate of the three categories is the skandhas, the realms and the entrances. The skandhas are the five: form, feeling, perception, volition and consciousness. The entrances are the twelve: the six outer dusts (form, sound, smell, taste, touch and dharma) and the six inner gates (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind). The realms are the eighteen, namely the six dusts, six gates and six consciousnesses. Self-nature can contain the ten thousand dharmas, and is called the storehouse consciousness; if thinking arises, that is the evolving consciousness: the six consciousnesses are produced, go out from the six gates and see the six dusts. These eighteen realms all arise in function from self-nature. If self-nature is false, it gives rise to eighteen falsities; if self-nature is right, it gives rise to eighteen rightnesses. If used for evil, it is the function of sentient beings; if used for good, it is the function of the Buddha. Where does the function come from? From the opposed dharmas and outer objects within self-nature. The five pairs of the insentient: heaven opposite earth, sun opposite moon, light opposite dark, yin opposite yang, water opposite fire; these are five pairs. The twelve pairs of dharma characteristics and language: speech opposite dharma, existence opposite non-existence, with form opposite without form, with characteristics opposite without characteristics, with outflows opposite without outflows, form opposite emptiness, movement opposite stillness, clear opposite turbid, ordinary opposite sage, monk opposite layperson, old opposite young, large opposite small; these are twelve pairs. The nineteen pairs of the function arising from self-nature: long opposite short, false opposite right, folly opposite wisdom, ignorance opposite intelligence, disorder opposite concentration, kindness opposite poison, precepts opposite wrong, straight opposite crooked, real opposite empty, steep opposite level, affliction opposite bodhi, permanent opposite impermanent, compassion opposite harm, joy opposite anger, giving opposite stinginess, advance opposite retreat, arising opposite ceasing, Dharma body opposite form body, transformation body opposite reward body; these are nineteen pairs." The Master said: "These thirty-six pairs of dharmas, if you know how to use them, are interpenetrated with the Way and thread through all the sutras and teachings, leaving the two sides in coming out and going in. When self-nature arises in function and you speak with people, outwardly you are in characteristics yet apart from characteristics, and inwardly you are in emptiness yet apart from emptiness. If you cling entirely to characteristics, you increase false views; if you cling entirely to emptiness, you increase ignorance. Some who cling to emptiness slander the sutras and say outright that words are not to be used. Since they say words are not to be used, people also should not speak; the speaking itself is the characteristic of words. And he says: 'The direct way does not establish words.' These two words 'not establish' are also words. Seeing others speak, he slanders them for clinging to words.

汝等須知，自迷猶可，又謗佛經。不要謗經，罪障無數。若著相於外，而作法求真；或廣立道場，說有無之過患。如是之人，累劫不得見性。但聽依法修行，又莫百物不思，而於道性窒礙。若聽說不修，令人反生邪念。但依法修行，無住相法施。汝等若悟，依此說、依此用、依此行、依此作，即不失本宗。若有人問汝義，問有將無對，問無將有對，問凡以聖對，問聖以凡對。二道相因，生中道義。如一問一對，餘問一依此作，即不失理也。設有人問：『何名為闇？』答云：『明是因，闇是緣，明沒即闇。』以明顯闇，以闇顯明，來去相因，成中道義。餘問悉皆如此。汝等於後傳法，依此轉相教授，勿失宗旨。」

(The Master continued:) You must know that if you are deluded yourself, that is one thing, but to slander the sutras as well! Do not slander the sutras, for the karmic obstruction is without number. If outwardly you cling to characteristics and practice the Dharma seeking truth, or widely set up places of practice and debate the faults of existence and non-existence, such people cannot see their nature even through many kalpas. You should only listen and practice according to the Dharma, and do not think nothing at all, which blocks the nature of the Way. If you only hear others speak and do not practice, you instead cause people to give rise to false thoughts. Just practice according to the Dharma and do the Dharma-giving that does not cling to characteristics. If you have understood, speak accordingly, use accordingly, act accordingly and do accordingly, and you will not lose the original school. If someone asks you about meaning, when asked about 'existence', answer with 'non-existence'; when asked about 'non-existence', answer with 'existence'; when asked about 'ordinary', answer with 'sage'; when asked about 'sage', answer with 'ordinary'. The way of the two sides depends on each other and gives rise to the meaning of the middle way. In this way, with one question and one answer, do all other questions likewise, and you will not lose the principle. Suppose someone asks: 'What is called dark?' answer: 'Brightness is the cause, darkness is the condition, and when brightness is gone, it is darkness.' Use brightness to show darkness and darkness to show brightness; coming and going depend on each other and bring about the meaning of the middle way. All other questions are like this. When you transmit the Dharma later, follow this and teach one another in turn, and do not lose the essential point."

師於太極元年壬子，延和七月(是年五月改延和，八月玄宗即位方改元先天，次年遂改開元。他本作先天者非)命門人往新州國恩寺建塔，仍令促工，次年夏末落成。七月一日，集徒眾曰：「吾至八月，欲離世間。汝等有疑，早須相問，為汝破疑，令汝迷盡。吾若去後，無人教汝。」法海等聞，悉皆涕泣。惟有神會，神情不動，亦無涕泣。師云：「神會小師卻得善不善等，毀譽不動，哀樂不生；餘者不得。數年山中竟修何道？汝今悲泣，為憂阿誰？若憂吾不知去處，吾自知去處。吾若不知去處，終不預報於汝。汝等悲泣，蓋為不知吾去處；若知吾去處，即不合悲泣。法性本無生滅去來，汝等盡坐，吾與汝說一偈，名曰真假動靜偈。汝等誦取此偈，與吾意同，依此修行，不失宗旨。」眾僧作禮，請師說偈。偈曰：

In the seventh month of the first year of Taiji, renzi (in the fifth month of that year the era name was changed to Yanhe, and only in the eighth month, when Xuanzong took the throne, was it changed to Xiantian, and the next year to Kaiyuan; some editions write Xiantian, which is incorrect), the Master ordered his disciples to build a pagoda at Guo'en Temple in Xinzhou, urged the work on, and it was completed at the end of summer the next year. On the first day of the seventh month he gathered the community and said: "In the eighth month I shall leave the world. If you have doubts, come and ask early, and I will break them for you so that all your delusions are ended. Once I have gone, there will be no one to teach you." Fahai and the others, hearing this, all wept. Only Shenhui's expression did not change, and he shed no tears. The Master said: "The young master Shenhui has indeed attained equality of good and not good, unmoved by praise or blame, with sorrow and joy not arising; the rest of you have not. What Way have you been cultivating in these mountains all these years? For whom are you grieving now? If you grieve because you do not know where I am going, I know where I am going; if I did not know where I was going, I would not have told you in advance. You weep precisely because you do not know where I am going; if you knew, you should not weep. The nature of the Dharma originally has no arising, ceasing, going or coming. All of you sit down, and I will speak to you a verse called the 'Verse on True and False, Moving and Still'. Recite this verse, and you will be of one mind with me; practice according to it and you will not lose the essential point." The monks bowed and asked the Master to speak the verse. The verse says:

「一切無有真，不以見於真，

No thing has any real 'truth', so do not look for truth in them;

若見於真者，是見盡非真。

if one thinks he has seen truth, that 'seeing' itself is entirely not true.

若能自有真，離假即心真，

If one can have truth of oneself, that is leaving falsity, and the mind at that moment is true;

自心不離假，無真何處真？

if one's own mind does not leave falsity, then since there is no truth, where can truth be sought?

有情即解動，無情即不動，

What has sentience can move, and what has no sentience does not move;

若修不動行，同無情不動。

if one cultivates the practice of 'not moving', it is the same as the unmoving of insentient things.

若覓真不動，動上有不動，

If you seek true non-movement, that non-movement lies within movement;

不動是不動，無情無佛種。

the non-movement of mere stillness is an insentient thing, with no seed of Buddhahood.

能善分別相，第一義不動，

Being able to skillfully discriminate the various characteristics while not moving in the first principle;

但作如此見，即是真如用。

just hold this view, and that is the function of True Suchness.

報諸學道人，努力須用意，

I tell all who study the Way: when you strive, you must use your mind;

莫於大乘門，卻執生死智。

do not, within the gate of the Great Vehicle, instead cling to views of birth and death.

若言下相應，即共論佛義；

If words are in accord at once, discuss together the meaning of the Buddha's Dharma;

若實不相應，合掌令歡喜。

if they truly do not accord, join your palms and let the other go away happy.

此宗本無諍，諍即失道意，

This school originally has no dispute, and a dispute loses the meaning of the Way;

執逆諍法門，自性入生死。」

to stubbornly oppose and argue about this Dharma gate is for self-nature to fall into birth and death."

時，徒眾聞說偈已，普皆作禮，並體師意，各各攝心，依法修行，更不敢諍，乃知大師不久住世。法海上座，再拜問曰：「和尚入滅之後，衣法當付何人？」師曰：「吾於大梵寺說法，以至於今抄錄流行，目曰『法寶壇經』。汝等守護，遞相傳授。度諸群生，但依此說，是名正法。今為汝等說法，不付其衣。蓋為汝等信根淳熟，決定無疑，堪任大事。然據先祖達磨大師付授偈意，衣不合傳。偈曰：

When the community had heard the verse, they all bowed and all grasped the Master's intention, each gathering in his thoughts and practicing according to the Dharma, and never again dared to dispute; only then did they know the Master would not stay long in the world. The senior monk Fahai bowed again and asked: "After the Venerable enters extinction, to whom shall the robe and Dharma be entrusted?" The Master said: "I have taught the Dharma at Dafan Temple until today, and what was copied down and handed on is titled the Platform Sutra of the Dharma Jewel. Guard it and transmit it in turn to save beings; so long as you speak according to it, that is the correct Dharma. Now in teaching you the Dharma, I do not entrust the robe. Because your roots of faith are ripe and you are decided without doubt, you are able to bear the great matter. Moreover, according to the meaning of the verse of transmission by the ancestor Master Bodhidharma, the robe should not be transmitted further. The verse says:

「『吾本來茲土，傳法救迷情，

I originally came to this land to transmit the Dharma and save deluded beings;

一華開五葉，結果自然成。』」

one flower opens five petals, and the fruit will naturally form."

師復曰：「諸善知識！汝等各各淨心，聽吾說法。若欲成就種智，須達一相三昧、一行三昧。若於一切處而不住相，於彼相中不生憎愛，亦無取捨，不念利益成壞等事，安閒恬靜，虛融澹泊，此名一相三昧。若於一切處行住坐臥，純一直心，不動道場，真成淨土，此名一行三昧。若人具二三昧，如地有種，含藏長養，成熟其實。一相一行，亦復如是。我今說法，猶如時雨，普潤大地。汝等佛性，譬諸種子，遇茲霑洽，悉得發生。承吾旨者，決獲菩提。依吾行者，定證妙果。聽吾偈曰：

The Master said further: "Good teachers! Each of you purify your own mind and listen to my Dharma. If you wish to accomplish all-knowing wisdom, you must penetrate the samadhi of one characteristic and the samadhi of one practice. If, in all places, you do not cling to characteristics, and within those characteristics give rise to no hatred or love, and have neither taking nor rejecting, do not think of benefit, success or failure, but are calm, tranquil, empty, open and plain, this is called the samadhi of one characteristic. If, in all places, walking, standing, sitting and lying, you have a purely single straight mind, not moving from the place of practice and at once making a pure land, this is called the samadhi of one practice. If a person has these two samadhis, he is like the ground with seeds in it, storing and nurturing them until their fruit ripens. The samadhi of one characteristic and the samadhi of one practice are also like this. Now my teaching of the Dharma is like the timely rain that universally moistens the earth; your Buddha-nature is like seeds, and meeting this moistening, all can sprout and grow. Those who receive my intention will surely obtain bodhi; those who practice according to me will surely realize the wonderful fruit. Listen to my verse:

「心地含諸種，普雨悉皆萌，

The mind-ground holds all kinds of seeds, and when the universal rain comes they all sprout;

頓悟華情已，菩提果自成。」

after suddenly awakening to the state of the flower, the fruit of bodhi forms of itself."

師說偈已，曰：「其法無二，其心亦然。其道清淨，亦無諸相，汝等慎勿觀靜及空其心。此心本淨，無可取捨。各自努力，隨緣好去。」爾時徒眾作禮而退。

When the Master had finished the verse, he said: "This Dharma has no two kinds, and this mind is the same. This Way is pure and has no characteristics of any kind. You must never contemplate stillness, nor empty your minds. This mind is originally pure and has nothing to take or reject. Each of you strive, and go well according to conditions." At that time the community bowed and withdrew.

大師，七月八日忽謂門人曰：「吾欲歸新州，汝等速理舟楫。」大眾哀留甚堅。師曰：「諸佛出現，猶示涅槃。有來必去，理亦常然。吾此形骸，歸必有所。」眾曰：「師從此去，早晚可回。」師曰：「葉落歸根，來時無口。」又問曰：「正法眼藏，傳付何人？」師曰：「有道者得，無心者通。」又問：「後莫有難否？」師曰：「吾滅後五六年，當有一人來取吾首。聽吾記曰：『頭上養親，口裡須餐，遇滿之難，楊柳為官。』」又云：「吾去七十年，有二菩薩從東方來，一齣家、一在家。同時興化，建立吾宗，締緝伽藍，昌隆法嗣。」問曰：「未知從上佛祖應現已來，傳授幾代？願垂開示。」師云：「古佛應世已無數量，不可計也。今以七佛為始，過去莊嚴劫，毘婆屍佛、屍棄佛、毘舍浮佛；今賢劫，拘留孫佛、拘那含牟尼佛、迦葉佛、釋迦文佛。是為七佛。

On the eighth day of the seventh month, the Master suddenly said to his disciples: "I am going back to Xinzhou; quickly prepare a boat." The assembly begged him earnestly to stay. The Master said: "The Buddhas appear in the world and still manifest nirvana. Where there is coming there must be going; the principle is originally so. This body of mine, when I return, must have a place to go." The people said: "Master, going from here, you will surely return sooner or later." The Master said: "Leaves fall and return to the root; when they come, they have no mouth." They also asked: "To whom is the treasury of the true Dharma eye transmitted?" The Master said: "One who has the Way obtains it, and one who has no mind penetrates it." They asked again: "Will there be calamity later?" The Master said: "Five or six years after my passing, a man will come to take my head. Hear my prediction: 'Supporting his parents on his head, needing to eat with his mouth, meeting the calamity of fullness, a willow will be an official.'" He added: "Seventy years after my death, two Bodhisattvas will come from the east, one a monk and one a layperson, who together will start teaching, establish this school of mine, build temples, and make the Dharma lineage flourish." Someone asked: "We do not know how many generations of Buddhas and patriarchs have appeared and transmitted from the beginning; we hope you will explain." The Master said: "Ancient Buddhas who have responded to the world are already countless. Now we begin with the Seven Buddhas: in the past Glorious Kalpa, Vipasyin Buddha, Sikhin Buddha and Visvabhu Buddha; in the present Bhadra Kalpa, Krakucchanda Buddha, Kanakamuni Buddha, Kasyapa Buddha and Sakyamuni Buddha. These are the Seven Buddhas.

「已上七佛，今以釋迦文佛首傳。

"Of the seven Buddhas above, the transmission now begins with Sakyamuni Buddha.

「第一摩訶迦葉尊者、第二阿難尊者、第三商那和修尊者、第四優波毱多尊者、第五提多迦尊者、第六彌遮迦尊者、第七婆須蜜多尊者、第八佛馱難提尊者、第九伏馱蜜多尊者、第十脇尊者、十一富那夜奢尊者、十二馬鳴大士、十三迦毘摩羅尊者、十四龍樹大士、十五迦那提婆尊者、十六羅睺羅多尊者、十七僧伽難提尊者、十八伽耶舍多尊者、十九鳩摩羅多尊者、二十闍耶多尊者、二十一婆修盤頭尊者、二十二摩拏羅尊者、二十三鶴勒那尊者、二十四師子尊者、二十五婆舍斯多尊者、二十六不如蜜多尊者、二十七般若多羅尊者、二十八菩提達磨尊者(此土是為初祖)、二十九慧可大師、三十僧璨大師、三十一道信大師、三十二弘忍大師。

"First, Venerable Mahakasyapa; second, Venerable Ananda; third, Venerable Sanavasa; fourth, Venerable Upagupta; fifth, Venerable Dhritaka; sixth, Venerable Miccaka; seventh, Venerable Vasumitra; eighth, Venerable Buddhanandi; ninth, Venerable Buddhamitra; tenth, Venerable Parsva; eleventh, Venerable Punyayasas; twelfth, the Great Being Asvaghosa; thirteenth, Venerable Kapimala; fourteenth, the Great Being Nagarjuna; fifteenth, Venerable Kanadeva; sixteenth, Venerable Rahulata; seventeenth, Venerable Sanghanandi; eighteenth, Venerable Gayasata; nineteenth, Venerable Kumarata; twentieth, Venerable Jayata; twenty-first, Venerable Vasubandhu; twenty-second, Venerable Manorhita; twenty-third, Venerable Haklenayasas; twenty-fourth, Venerable Simha; twenty-fifth, Venerable Vasasita; twenty-sixth, Venerable Punyamitra; twenty-seventh, Venerable Prajnatara; twenty-eighth, Venerable Bodhidharma (counted as the First Patriarch in China); twenty-ninth, Master Huike; thirtieth, Master Sengcan; thirty-first, Master Daoxin; thirty-second, Master Hongren.

「惠能是為三十三祖。從上諸祖，各有稟承。汝等向後，遞代流傳毋令乖誤。」

"Huineng is the thirty-third patriarch. Each of the patriarchs from the past has had his own succession. In the future, transmit it from generation to generation, and do not make mistakes."

大師，先天二年癸丑歲八月初三日(是年十二月改元開元)，於國恩寺齋罷，謂諸徒眾曰：「汝等各依位坐，吾與汝別。」法海白言：「和尚！留何教法，令後代迷人得見佛性？」師言：「汝等諦聽！後代迷人，若識眾生，即是佛性；若不識眾生，萬劫覓佛難逢。吾今教汝。識自心眾生，見自心佛性。欲求見佛，但識眾生。只為眾生迷佛，非是佛迷眾生。自性若悟，眾生是佛；自性若迷，佛是眾生。自性平等，眾生是佛；自性邪險，佛是眾生。汝等心若險曲，即佛在眾生中；一念平直。即是眾生成佛。我心自有佛，自佛是真佛。自若無佛心，何處求真佛？汝等自心是佛，更莫狐疑。外無一物而能建立，皆是本心生萬種法。故經云：『心生種種法生，心滅種種法滅。』吾今留一偈與汝等別，名自性真佛偈。後代之人，識此偈意，自見本心，自成佛道。偈曰：

On the third day of the eighth month of the second year of Xiantian, guichou (in the twelfth month of that year the era was changed to Kaiyuan), after the midday meal at Guo'en Temple, the Master said to the assembly: "Each of you sit in your places; I am going to take leave of you." Fahai said: "Venerable! What teaching will you leave so that deluded people of later times may see Buddha-nature?" The Master said: "Listen carefully! If deluded people of later times recognize sentient beings, that is Buddha-nature; if they do not recognize sentient beings, they will hardly meet a Buddha even if they seek him for ten thousand kalpas. Now I teach you: recognize the sentient beings of your own mind and you see the Buddha-nature of your own mind. If you wish to see the Buddha, only recognize sentient beings. It is only that sentient beings delude the Buddha, not that the Buddha deludes sentient beings. If self-nature awakens, sentient beings are Buddha; if self-nature is deluded, the Buddha is a sentient being. If self-nature is even, sentient beings are Buddha; if self-nature is crooked and dangerous, the Buddha is a sentient being. If your mind is dangerous, evil and crooked, that is the Buddha within sentient beings; with one thought of evenness and straightness, sentient beings become Buddha. In my mind there is a Buddha of its own, and this own Buddha is the true Buddha. If you do not have the Buddha mind yourself, where will you go to seek the true Buddha? Your own mind is the Buddha; do not doubt any more. Outside the mind there is not a single thing that can establish anything; all the ten thousand dharmas are born from the original mind. So the sutra says: 'When the mind arises, all dharmas arise; when the mind ceases, all dharmas cease.' Now I leave you a verse in farewell, called the 'Verse of the True Buddha of Self-Nature'. Later people who recognize the meaning of this verse will themselves see their original mind and themselves accomplish the Buddha Way. The verse says:

「真如自性是真佛，邪見三毒是魔王，

True Suchness self-nature is the true Buddha, and false views and the three poisons of greed, anger and ignorance are the demon king;

邪迷之時魔在舍，正見之時佛在堂。

when one is false and deluded, the demon lives in the house; when one has right view, the Buddha sits in the hall.

性中邪見三毒生，即是魔王來住舍，

When false views and the three poisons arise in self-nature, that is the demon king coming to live in the house;

正見自除三毒心，魔變成佛真無假。

right view naturally removes the mind of the three poisons, and the demon turns into the Buddha, truly and not falsely.

法身報身及化身，三身本來是一身，

The Dharma body, the reward body and the transformation body, these three bodies are originally one body;

若向性中能自見，即是成佛菩提因。

if one can see it for oneself within self-nature, that is the cause of bodhi for becoming a Buddha.

本從化身生淨性，淨性常在化身中，

The pure nature is originally born from the transformation body, and the pure nature is also always in the transformation body;

性使化身行正道，當來圓滿真無窮。

when the original nature drives the transformation body to walk the right path, the future fulfillment is truly without end.

婬性本是淨性因，除婬即是淨性身，

The nature of lust is originally the cause of the pure nature; remove lust, and at once it is the pure nature body;

性中各自離五欲，見性剎那即是真。

each person within self-nature leaves the five desires, and the instant of seeing one's nature is the truth.

今生若遇頓教門，忽悟自性見世尊，

If in this life one meets the sudden teaching Dharma gate, suddenly awakening to self-nature one sees the World-Honored One;

若欲修行覓作佛，不知何處擬求真？

if one is bent on seeking a Buddha to become through practice, he does not know where he plans to seek the truth.

若能心中自見真，有真即是成佛因，

If one can see the truth in one's own mind, having the truth is the cause of becoming a Buddha;

不見自性外覓佛，起心總是大痴人。

not seeing self-nature and seeking a Buddha outside, those who give rise to such a mind are all great fools.

頓教法門今已留，救度世人須自修，

The sudden teaching Dharma gate has now been left behind, and to save worldly people each must practice for himself;

報汝當來學道者，不作此見大悠悠。」

I tell you who will study the Way in the future: without this view, you will only pass your life in vain."

師說偈已，告曰：「汝等好住。吾滅度後，莫作世情悲泣雨淚，受人弔問、身著孝服，非吾弟子，亦非正法。但識自本心，見自本性，無動無靜，無生無滅，無去無來，無是無非，無住無往。恐汝等心迷，不會吾意，今再囑汝，令汝見性。吾滅度後，依此修行，如吾在日；若違吾教，縱吾在世，亦無有益。」復說偈曰：

When the Master had finished the verse, he told the assembly: "Stay well. After my passing, do not weep and shed tears as in worldly sentiment, accept condolences from others, or wear mourning clothes on your body; that would be neither my disciple nor the correct Dharma. Only recognize your own original mind and see your own original nature, with no movement and no stillness, no arising and no ceasing, no going and no coming, no right and no wrong, no abiding and no departing. I fear that your minds are deluded and cannot understand my meaning, so now I charge you again so that you may see your nature. After my passing, practice in this way, and it will be just as in the days when I was alive; if you go against my teaching, even if I were alive, there would be no benefit." He spoke another verse:

「兀兀不修善，騰騰不造惡，

Standing alone and at ease, not deliberately cultivating good; drifting freely, not creating evil either;

寂寂斷見聞，蕩蕩心無著。」

quietly cutting off the clinging of seeing and hearing, vast and open, the mind attached to nothing."

師說偈已，端坐至三更，忽謂門人曰：「吾行矣！」奄然遷化。於時異香滿室，白虹屬地，林木變白，禽獸哀鳴。十一月，廣韶新三郡官僚，洎門人僧俗，爭迎真身，莫決所之。乃焚香禱曰：「香煙指處，師所歸焉。」時香煙直貫曹溪。十一月十三日，遷神龕併所傳衣缽而回。次年七月出龕，弟子方辯以香泥上之，門人憶念取首之記，仍以鐵葉漆布固護師頸入塔。忽於塔內白光出現，直上沖天，三日始散。韶州奏聞，奉勅立碑，紀師道行。

When the Master had finished the verse, he sat upright until the third watch, then suddenly said to his disciples: "I am going!" and peacefully passed into stillness. At that time an unusual fragrance filled the room, a white rainbow reached continuously down to the ground, the trees in the forest turned white, and birds and beasts cried out in grief. In the eleventh month, the officials of the three prefectures of Guangzhou, Shaozhou and Xinzhou, together with disciples, monks and laypeople, vied to invite the true body and could not decide where it should go, so they burned incense and prayed, saying: "Wherever the smoke points, the Master will go." At that time the incense smoke pointed straight to Caoxi. On the thirteenth day of the eleventh month, the shrine was moved back together with the robe and bowl that had been transmitted. In the seventh month of the next year the shrine was opened, and the disciple Fangbian smeared fragrant clay on the true body; the disciples, remembering the prediction about taking the head, reinforced and protected the Master's neck with iron plates and lacquered cloth, and then entered it into the pagoda. Suddenly a white light appeared in the pagoda and shot straight up to the sky, and did not disperse for three days. Shaozhou reported to the court, and by imperial order a stele was erected to record the Master's Way and conduct.

師春秋七十有六，年二十四傳衣，三十九祝髮，說法利生三十七載，嗣法四十三人，悟道超凡者莫知其數。達磨所傳信衣(西域屈眴布也)，中宗賜磨衲寶缽，及方辯塑師真相，並道具，永鎮寶林道場。留傳《壇經》以顯宗旨，興隆三寶，普利群生者。

The Master lived to the age of seventy-six; he received the robe at twenty-four, had his head shaved at thirty-nine, taught the Dharma and benefited beings for thirty-seven years, had forty-three Dharma heirs, and an unknown number who awakened to the Way and transcended the ordinary. The robe of faith transmitted by Bodhidharma (which is Quxun cloth from the Western Regions), the ground-cloth kasaya and treasure bowl bestowed by Emperor Zhongzong, as well as the true image and implements of the Master made by Fangbian, forever guard Baolin Monastery. The Platform Sutra was handed down to make the essential point clear, to make the Three Jewels flourish and to benefit all beings.

六祖大師緣起外紀

What follows is the Outer Record of the Origins of the Sixth Patriarch, an account of the Sixth Patriarch's life as an outside biography.

門人法海等集

Compiled by his disciples Fahai and others.

大師名惠能，父盧氏，諱行瑫，唐武德三年九月，左官新州。母李氏，先夢庭前白華競發，白鶴雙飛，異香滿室，覺而有娠。遂潔誠齋戒，懷姙六年師乃生焉，唐貞觀十二年戊戌歲二月八日子時也。時毫光騰空，香氣芬馥。黎明有二僧造謁，謂師之父曰：「夜來生兒，專為安名，可上惠下能也。」父曰：「何名惠能？」僧曰：「惠者以法惠濟眾生，能者能作佛事。」言畢而出，不知所之。師不飲母乳，遇夜神人灌以甘露。三歲父喪，葬於宅畔。母守志鞠養，既長鬻薪供母。年二十有四，聞經有省。往黃梅參禮，五祖器之，付衣法，令嗣祖位，時龍朔元年辛酉歲也。

The Master's name was Huineng. His father was surnamed Lu and named Xingtao, and in the ninth month of the third year of Wude of the Tang was demoted from office and sent to Xinzhou. His mother, Lady Li, had earlier dreamed of white flowers in the courtyard vying to bloom, a pair of white cranes dancing, and an unusual fragrance filling the room, and on waking she became pregnant. She then purified herself and fasted sincerely, and after six years of pregnancy gave birth to the Master, at the hour of zi on the eighth day of the second month of wuxu, the twelfth year of Zhenguan of the Tang. At that time rays of light rose into the sky and the fragrance was rich. At dawn two monks came to visit and said to the Master's father: "The child born last night, we have come especially to give him a name; he may be called Hui above and Neng below." The father asked: "Why Huineng?" The monks said: "Hui means to bestow the Dharma and save beings; Neng means to be able to do the Buddha's work." Having said this they went out, and no one knew where they went. The Master would not take his mother's milk, and every night a divine person fed him sweet dew. When he was three his father died and was buried beside the house. His mother kept her widowhood and raised him, and when he grew up he supported his mother by selling firewood. At twenty-four, hearing someone recite a sutra, he had an awakening and went to Huangmei to pay homage; the Fifth Patriarch valued him and entrusted him with the robe and Dharma, making him heir to the patriarchal position, in the xinyou year, the first year of Longshuo.

南歸隱遯，至儀鳳元年丙子正月八日，會印宗法師詰論玄奧，印宗悟契師旨。是月十五日，普會四眾為師薙𩬊。二月八日，集諸名德授具足戒。西京智光律師為授戒師，蘇州慧靜律師為羯磨，荊州通應律師為教授，中天耆多羅律師為說戒，西國蜜多三藏為證戒。其戒壇乃宋朝求那跋陀羅三藏創建，立碑曰：「後當有肉身菩薩於此授戒。」又梁天監元年，智藥三藏自西竺國航海而來，將彼土菩提樹一株植此壇畔，亦預誌曰：「後一百七十年，有肉身菩薩，於此樹下開演上乘度無量眾，真傳佛心印之法主也。」師至是祝髮受戒，及與四眾開示單傳之旨，一如昔讖(梁天監元年壬午歲，至唐儀鳳元年丙子，得一百七十五年)。

He withdrew into hiding in the south, and on the eighth day of the first month of bingzi, the first year of Yifeng, he met Dharma Master Yinzong, who questioned and discussed profound meanings, and Yinzong awakened and accorded with the Master's intention. On the fifteenth of that month he universally summoned the fourfold assembly to have the Master's head shaved. On the eighth day of the second month he gathered the virtuous ones to give him the full precepts: the Vinaya Master Zhiguang of the western capital served as precept master, the Vinaya Master Huijing of Suzhou as karma master, the Vinaya Master Tongying of Jingzhou as instructor, the Vinaya Master Qiduoluo of central India as precept reciter, and the Tripitaka Master Mitra of the western lands as witness of the precepts. That ordination platform was built by the Tripitaka Master Gunabhadra in the Liu Song period, and he erected a stele saying: "In later times a flesh-body Bodhisattva will give the precepts here." Also, in the first year of Tianjian of the Liang, the Tripitaka Master Zhiyao came by sea from western India, bringing a bodhi tree from there and planting it beside the ordination platform, and likewise predicted: "A hundred and seventy years from now, a flesh-body Bodhisattva will expound the Supreme Vehicle beneath this tree and save immeasurable beings; he will be the true Dharma lord who transmits the Buddha's mind-seal." The Master, at this time having his head shaved and receiving the precepts, and revealing to the fourfold assembly the essential point of the single transmission, fully confirmed the earlier predictions. (From renwu, the first year of Tianjian of the Liang, to bingzi, the first year of Yifeng of the Tang, is a hundred and seventy-five years.)

次年春，師辭眾歸寶林，印宗與緇白送者千餘人，直至曹溪。時荊州通應律師，與學者數百人依師而住。師至曹溪寶林，覩堂宇湫隘，不足容眾，欲廣之。遂謁里人陳亞仙曰：「老僧欲就檀越求坐具地，得不？」仙曰：「和尚坐具幾許闊？」祖出坐具示之，亞仙唯然。祖以坐具一展，盡罩曹溪四境，四天王現身坐鎮四方。今寺境有天王嶺，因茲而名。仙曰：「知和尚法力廣大，但吾高祖墳墓並在此地，他日造塔，幸望存留，餘願盡捨永為寶坊。然此地乃生龍白象來脈，只可平天，不可平地。」寺後營建，一依其言。師遊境內山水勝處，輒憩止，遂成蘭若一十三所。今曰華果院，隷籍寺門。其寶林道場，亦先是西國智藥三藏自南海經曹溪口，掬水而飲，香美，異之。謂其徒曰：「此水與西天之水無別，溪源上必有勝地，堪為蘭若。」隨流至源上，四顧山水回環，峰巒奇秀，歎曰：「宛如西天寶林山也。」乃謂曹侯村居民曰：「可於此山建一梵剎，一百七十年後，當有無上法寶於此演化，得道者如林，宜號寶林。」時韶州牧侯敬中，以其言具表聞奏，上可其請，賜寶林為額，遂成梵宮，落成於梁天監三年。寺殿前有潭一所，龍常出沒其間，觸橈林木。一日現形甚巨，波浪洶湧，雲霧陰翳，徒眾皆懼。師叱之曰：「爾只能現大身，不能現小身，若為神龍，當能變化以小現大、以大現小也。」其龍忽沒，俄頃復現小身躍出潭面，師展缽試之曰：「爾且不敢入老僧缽盂裡。」龍乃遊揚至前，師以缽舀之，龍不能動。師持缽堂上，與龍說法，龍遂蛻骨而去。其骨長可七寸，首尾角足皆具，留傳寺門。師後以土石堙其潭，今殿前左側有鐵塔鎮處是也。

In the spring of the next year, the Master took leave of the assembly and returned to Baolin, and Yinzong and more than a thousand monks and laypeople saw him off as far as Caoxi. At that time the Vinaya Master Tongying of Jingzhou, with several hundred students, took up residence with the Master. When the Master reached Baolin in Caoxi, he saw that the halls were low and cramped and could not hold the people, and wished to enlarge them, so he visited the local man Chen Yaxian and said: "This old monk wishes to ask the donor for a piece of land the size of a sitting cloth; may I?" Chen Yaxian said: "How wide is the Venerable's sitting cloth?" The Patriarch took out the sitting cloth and showed him, and Yaxian agreed. When the Patriarch unfolded the sitting cloth, it covered all four boundaries of Caoxi, and the Four Heavenly Kings appeared and sat to guard the four directions. The temple grounds now have a Heavenly King Ridge, which got its name from this. Yaxian said: "I know the Venerable's Dharma power is vast, but the tombs of my high ancestors are all on this land, and when pagodas are built in the future I hope they will be preserved; all the rest I give up entirely, to be a treasure-hall forever. But this land is the incoming vein of a living dragon and a white elephant, and may only be leveled to the sky, not leveled in the ground." Later construction behind the temple was all done as he said. The Master traveled the scenic mountains and waters of the area, stopping to rest wherever he went, and so built thirteen aranyas, now called Huaguo Yuan, attached to the temple gate. As for the Baolin place of practice, earlier the western Tripitaka Master Zhiyao, passing by Caoxi mouth from the South Sea, scooped up water to drink, found it fragrant and sweet and was amazed, and said to his disciples: "This water is no different from the water of the western heaven; at the source of this stream there must be a splendid place where an aranya can be built." So he followed the stream up to its source, looked all around at the encircling mountains and waters and the wondrous peaks, and exclaimed: "It is just like the Baolin Mountain of the western heaven." He then said to the residents of Caohou Village: "A temple can be built on this mountain; a hundred and seventy years from now, a supreme Dharma jewel will teach and transform here, and those who attain the Way will be as many as the trees of a forest, so it should be called Baolin (Jewel Forest)." At that time Hou Jingzhong, the prefect of Shaozhou, reported his words in a memorial, and the Emperor approved the request and bestowed 'Baolin' as the temple's plaque, and so the Brahma palace was built, completed in the third year of Tianjian of the Liang. In front of the temple hall was a pond in which a dragon often appeared and disappeared, striking the trees. One day the dragon showed its huge body, waves surged, clouds and mist darkened, and the community was afraid. The Master scolded it: "You can only show a large body, not a small one; if you are truly a divine dragon, you should be able to transform, showing the large as small and the small as large." The dragon suddenly vanished, and in a moment appeared in a small body and leapt out of the pond. The Master unfolded his bowl to test it: "You do not dare enter this old monk's bowl." The dragon then swam up to him, and the Master scooped it up with the bowl, and the dragon could not move. The Master carried the bowl to the hall and taught the Dharma to the dragon, and the dragon then shed its bones and left. The bones were about seven inches long, complete with head, tail, horns and feet, and are kept in the temple. The Master later filled the pond with earth and stone, and the place in front of the hall on the left side where an iron pagoda now stands to hold it down is the spot.

師墜腰石鐫龍朔元年盧居士誌八字，此石今存黃梅東禪。又唐王維右丞，為神會大師作《祖師記》云：「師混勞侶積十六載，會印宗講經，因為削𩬊。」又柳宗元刺史，作祖師諡號碑云：「師受信具，遯隱南海上十六年。度其可行，乃居曹溪為人師。」又張商英丞相，作《五祖記》云：「五祖演化於黃梅縣之東禪院，蓋其便於將母。龍朔元年，以衣法付六祖已，散眾入東山結庵。有居人憑茂，以山施師為道場焉。」以此考之，則師至黃梅傳受五祖衣法，實龍朔元年辛酉歲。至儀鳳丙子，得一十六年，師方至法性祝髮。他本或作師咸亨中至黃梅，恐非。

On the stone the Master tied to his waist were carved the eight characters "Recorded by the layman Lu in the first year of Longshuo," and this stone is still today at the Dongchan Temple in Huangmei. Furthermore, Wang Wei, Vice Director of the Right in the Tang dynasty, in writing the "Record of the Patriarch" for Master Shenhui, said: "The Master hid himself among his fellow laborers for sixteen years, until he met Yinzong lecturing on the scripture, and for him had his hair shaved." Also Liu Zongyuan, the Prefect, in writing the inscription for the Patriarch's posthumous title, said: "The Master, having received the robe of faith and the alms bowl, lived in seclusion in the Nanhai region for sixteen years. Judging that he could now practice the Way, he took up residence at Caoxi and became a teacher of others." Also Chancellor Zhang Shangying, in writing the "Record of the Fifth Patriarch," said: "The Fifth Patriarch taught at the Dongchan Monastery in Huangmei County in order to be able to support his mother conveniently. In the first year of Longshuo, after entrusting the robe and Dharma to the Sixth Patriarch, he dismissed his followers and went into Dongshan to build a hermitage. A local resident, Feng Mao, donated the mountain to the Master as a place of practice." By these accounts, the Master's arrival at Huangmei to receive the Fifth Patriarch's robe and Dharma was truly in the first year of Longshuo, the xinyou year; by the bingzi year of Yifeng, a total of sixteen years, the Master then went to the Faxing Temple to have his hair shaved. Some editions say the Master arrived at Huangmei in the Xianheng years, which is probably wrong.

歷朝崇奉事蹟

The records of reverence from successive dynasties are as follows.

唐憲宗皇帝，諡大師曰大鑒禪師。

Emperor Xianzong of the Tang gave the Master the posthumous title "Chan Master Dajian."

宋太宗皇帝，加諡大鑒真空禪師，詔新師塔曰太平興國之塔。

Emperor Taizong of the Song added the posthumous title "Chan Master Dajian Zhenkong," and by edict named the newly built stupa of the Master "The Stupa of Great Peace and Flourishing Country."

宋仁宗皇帝，天聖十年迎師真身及衣缽入大內供養，加諡大鑒真空普覺禪師。

In the tenth year of Tiansheng, Emperor Renzong of the Song invited the Master's true body and robe and bowl into the palace to be venerated, and added the posthumous title "Chan Master Dajian Zhenkong Pujue."

宋神宗皇帝，加諡大鑒真空普覺圓明禪師。具見晏元獻公碑記。

Emperor Shenzong of the Song added the posthumous title "Chan Master Dajian Zhenkong Pujue Yuanming." For details see the inscription by Duke Yan Yuanxian (Yan Shu).

賜諡大鑒禪師碑(柳宗元撰)

"Inscription on the Bestowal of the Posthumous Title Chan Master Dajian," composed by Liu Zongyuan.

扶風公廉，問嶺南三年，以佛氏第六祖，未有稱號，疏聞於上。詔諡大鑒禪師，塔曰靈照之塔。元和十年十月十三日，下尚書祠部符到都府，公命部吏洎州司功掾告於其祠。幢蓋鍾鼓增山盈谷，萬人鹹會，若聞鬼神。其時學者千有餘人，莫不欣踴奮厲，如師復生；則又感悼涕慕，如師始亡。因言曰：

Lord Ma Zong of Fufeng, serving as Surveillance Commissioner of Lingnan for three years, observed that the Sixth Patriarch of the Buddhist school had as yet no title, and memorialized the emperor. An edict granted the posthumous title "Chan Master Dajian" and named the stupa "The Stupa of Spiritual Illumination." On the thirteenth day of the tenth month of the tenth year of Yuanhe, a document from the Ministry of Rites of the Department of State Affairs came down to the prefectural capital, and Lord Ma ordered his subordinate officials and the prefectural Superintendent of Merit to proclaim it at the temple. Banners, canopies, bells and drums filled the valleys, and tens of thousands assembled, as if one could hear the spirits. At that time there were over a thousand students, none of whom did not leap for joy and feel roused and encouraged, as if the Master had been reborn; and then at once they were grieved and mournful, weeping and longing, as if the Master had just passed away. Thereupon a text was written, saying:

自有生物，則好鬪奪相賊殺，喪其本實，誖乖淫流，莫克返於初。孔子無大位，沒以餘言持世，更楊、墨、黃老益雜，其術分裂。而吾浮圖說後出，推離還源，合所謂生而靜者。梁氏好作有為，師達磨譏之，空術益顯。六傳至大鑒。大鑒始以能勞苦服役，一聽其言，言希以究。師用感動，遂受信具。遯隱南海上，人無聞知，又十六年。度其可行，乃居曹溪為人師。會學者來，甞數千人。其道以無為為有，以空洞為寔，以廣大不蕩為歸。其教人，始以性善、終以性善，不假耘鋤，本其靜矣。中宗聞名，使倖臣再徵，不能致，取其言以為心術。其說具在。今布天下，凡言禪皆本曹溪。大鑒去世百有六年，凡治廣部，而以名聞者以十數，莫能揭其號。乃今始告天子，得大諡。豐佐吾道，其可無辭？公始立朝，以儒重剌虔州、都護安南，由海中大蠻夷，連身毒之西，浮舶聽命，鹹被公德，受旂纛節戟，來蒞南海，屬國如林，不殺不怒，人畏無噩，允克光於有仁，昭列大鑒莫如公，宜其徒之老。乃易石於宇下，使來謁辭。其辭曰：

Since living beings came into existence, they have loved to fight and plunder and to kill one another, losing their original truth, drifting on in disorder and excess, unable to return to the beginning. Confucius had no great power or rank, and after his death sustained the world through the words he left behind; afterward, through the schools of Yang Zhu, Mo Di, and Huang-Lao, it became still more confused, and his teaching too was fragmented. Our Buddhist teaching came later, tracing back the scattering to return to the source, which exactly accords with the nature said to be 'still at birth.' Emperor Wu of Liang loved conditioned affairs, and Master Bodhidharma criticized him, and so the principle of 'emptiness' became all the more clear. Handed down six generations, it came to Dajian. Dajian at first was able to endure hardship and do menial labor; hearing his master's words even once, though he said little he thoroughly grasped their principle, so his master was moved by it and gave him the robe of faith and the alms bowl. He lived in seclusion in the Nanhai region, where people had no way of hearing of him, for another sixteen years. Judging that he could now practice the Way, he took up residence at Caoxi and became a teacher of others. The students who gathered there often numbered several thousand. His Way took 'non-action' as 'being,' took 'emptiness' as 'reality,' and found its destination in vastness without license. In teaching people, he spoke of the goodness of nature at the start and also at the end, with no need to weed or hoe, because it is originally still. Emperor Zhongzong heard of his fame and sent favored ministers twice to summon him, and both times could not move him, and only took his words as an art of cultivating the mind. His teachings all still survive and now spread throughout the world; all who speak of Chan are rooted in Caoxi. In the one hundred and six years since Dajian died, more than ten governors of the Guangzhou region have won renown in the world, yet no one was able to raise up a title for him. Only now has it been reported to the Son of Heaven and a great posthumous title obtained. For one who so richly supports our Way, how could there not be a piece of writing? Lord Ma, when he first stood at court, was esteemed for his Confucian learning, and served as Prefect of Qianzhou and Protector-General of Annam; from the great barbarian lands in the sea, all the way to Shendu (India) and westward, the ships sailing the sea all obeyed his command, and all received the favor of Lord Ma, who, bearing banners and halberds, governed the South Sea, with dependent states like a forest; he neither killed nor raged, and people stood in awe of him without fear, and he was truly able to enlarge benevolence. None could match Lord Ma in making Dajian known and honored, and it is no wonder his disciples esteem him. So under the roof the stone stele was replaced, and he sent someone to invite me to compose the text. The text says:

達摩乾乾，傳佛語心，六承其授，大鑒是臨。勞勤專默，終挹於深，抱其信器，行海之陰。其道爰施，在溪之曹，厖合猥附，不夷其高。傳告鹹陳，惟道之褒，生而性善，在物而具。荒流奔軼，乃萬其趣，匪思愈亂，匪覺滋誤。由師內鑒，鹹獲於素，不植乎根，不耘乎苗。中一外融，有粹孔昭，在帝中宗，聘言於朝。陰翊王度，俾人逍遙，越百有六祀，號諡不紀。由扶風公，告今天子，尚書既復大行，乃誄光於南土。其法再起，厥徒萬億，同悼齊喜。惟師化所被洎，扶風公所履，鹹戴天子。天子休命，嘉公德美，溢於海夷，浮圖是視。師以仁傳，公以仁理，謁辭圖堅，永胤不已。

Bodhidharma, diligent and earnest, transmitted the mind-Dharma that the Buddha taught; six generations received this transmission, down to Dajian. He was diligent and single-minded and silent, in the end drawing from the depths, embracing that token of faith, walking south of the South Sea. His Way then spread, in the region of Caoxi; a mixed multitude came to attach themselves, and this did not lower his loftiness. Proclamations and notices were all stated, only to extol this Way. People are born with a nature that is good, each fully equipped in concrete things; it is only through wild running about that the myriad directions arose. Not to think it over only makes more confusion, not to awaken only increases delusion. Because the Master looked inward, everyone could return to his original simplicity; there was no need to plant its roots or weed out its sprouts. The inner mind is single and outer things are perfectly blended, pure and utterly bright. Under Emperor Zhongzong, an invitation was sent in court. He secretly assisted the kingly way, enabling people to wander free. After one hundred and six years, the posthumous title was not yet recorded. Through Lord Fufeng it was reported to the present Son of Heaven, and once the Department of State Affairs had answered and put it into effect, a eulogy was written to shine in the south. His Dharma flourished again, with disciples numbering in the tens of thousands of millions, mourning together and rejoicing together. The places covered by the Master's teaching and the administration carried out by Lord Fufeng all look up to the Son of Heaven. The Son of Heaven issued a fine edict, commending the virtue of Lord Ma, flowing out to the barbarians overseas and revered by the Buddhist school. The Master transmitted the Dharma with humaneness, and Lord Ma governed with humaneness. We request that the text be carved in stone for firmness, to be handed down without end.

大鑒禪師碑(並《佛衣銘》，俱劉禹錫撰)

"Inscription for Chan Master Dajian," together with the "Inscription on the Buddha's Robe," both composed by Liu Yuxi.

元和十年某月日，詔書追褒曹溪第六祖能公，諡曰大鑒。寔廣州牧馬總以疏聞，繇是可其奏，尚道以尊名，同歸善善，不隔異教。一字之褒，華夷孔懷，得其所故也。馬公敬其事且謹，始以垂後，遂諮於文雄。今柳州刺史河東柳君為前碑，後三年有僧道琳，率其徒由曹溪來，且曰：「願立第二碑，學者志也。」維如來滅後，中五百歲，而摩騰、竺法蘭，以經來華，人始聞其言，猶夫重昏之見曶爽。後五百歲，而達摩以法來華，人始傳其心，猶夫昧旦之覩白日。自達摩六傳至大鑒，如貫意珠，有先後而無同異。世之言真宗者，所謂頓門。初達摩與佛衣俱來，得道傳付以為真印。至大鑒置而不傳，豈以是為筌蹄邪？芻狗邪？將人人之莫已若而不若置之邪？吾不得而知也。

In the tenth year of Yuanhe, on a certain month and day, an imperial edict posthumously honored Lord Huineng, Sixth Patriarch of Caoxi, with the title "Dajian." This was truly through the memorial of Ma Zong, Governor of Guangzhou, and so his request was granted: valuing the Way and honoring its name, all alike commend good conduct without being kept apart by differing religions. A single word of honor is deeply cherished by both Chinese and foreigners because it is appropriate. Lord Ma respected this matter and was careful about it, and from the start wished to leave it for later generations, and so consulted a champion of the literary world. Now Master Liu, a man of Hedong and Prefect of Liuzhou, has composed the earlier inscription; three years later, a monk named Daolin led his disciples from Caoxi and said: "We wish to set up a second stele; this is the students' wish." After the Tathagata's extinction, five hundred years passed in between, then Kasyapa Matanga and Dharmaratna brought scriptures to China, and people first heard his teaching, like seeing the faint light of dawn in layers of darkness. After another five hundred years, Bodhidharma brought the Dharma to China, and people then received his mind-Dharma, like seeing the bright sun at daybreak. From Bodhidharma, passed on through six generations to Dajian, like a string of wish-fulfilling pearls, with earlier and later but no difference. What the world speaks of as the true school is the so-called sudden gate. At the start Bodhidharma came together with the Buddha's robe, and those who attained the Way passed it on as a true seal of authentication. But when it came to Dajian, it was set aside and not passed on. Was it regarded as the fish-trap to be forgotten once the fish is caught? Or as the straw dog thrown away after being used in sacrifice? Or was it simply put aside because no one could match himself? I do not know.

按大鑒生新州，三十出家，四十七年而沒，百有六年而諡。始自蘄之東山，從第五師得授記以歸。中宗使中貴人再徵，不奉詔。第以言為貢，上敬行之。銘曰：

Examining the life of Dajian: he was born in Xinzhou, left home at thirty, and died after forty-seven years, receiving a posthumous title one hundred and six years later. At first he went from Dongshan in Qizhou, receiving the Fifth Generation Master's prediction and parting, and returned. Emperor Zhongzong twice sent eunuchs to summon him, and he did not obey the edict, only offering words as tribute, which the emperor respected and followed. The inscription says:

至人之生，無有種類，同人者形，出人者智。蠢蠢南裔，降生傑異，父乾母坤，獨肖元氣。一言頓悟，不踐初地，五師相承，授以寶器。宴坐曹溪，世號南宗，學徒爰來，如水之東。飲以妙藥，差其瘖聾，詔不能致，許為法雄。去佛日遠，群言積億，著空執有，各走其域。我立真筌，揭起南國，無修而修，無得而得。能使學者，還其天識，如黑而迷，仰目鬥極。得之自然，竟不可傳，口傳手付，則礙於有。留衣空堂，得者天授。

The birth of the perfected person has no kind to follow; what he shares with ordinary people is his appearance, and what surpasses ordinary people is his wisdom. In the dull remote south there was born this outstanding and extraordinary person; with Qian as his father and Kun as his mother, he alone resembles the primal qi. Awakening suddenly at a single phrase, he did not need to tread the first stage of practice; the five generations of masters received it one from another, and handed the precious vessel to him. He sat at ease at Caoxi, and the world called it the Southern School; students came in crowds, like water flowing east. He gave them wondrous medicine to drink and cured their muteness and deafness; the imperial edict could not move him, and people acknowledged him as the champion of the Dharma gate. As the age of the Buddha grew further and further away, the many doctrines accumulated into the hundreds of millions; some clung to emptiness and some clung to being, each running into his own territory. I set up the true fish-trap and snare, and revealed it in the southern land; cultivating without anything to cultivate, attaining without anything to attain. He enabled students of the Way to return to their innate insight, like someone lost in the dark who looks up and sees the Dipper. What is obtained is natural and ultimately cannot be transmitted; passed on from mouth to hand, it becomes stuck in 'being.' Leaving the robe in the empty hall, the one who obtains it is one given by Heaven.

佛衣銘(並引)

"Inscription on the Buddha's Robe," with a short preface.

吾既為僧琳撰曹溪第二碑，且思所以辯六祖置衣不傳之旨，作《佛衣銘》。曰：

Having already composed the second stele text for Caoxi for the monk Daolin, I further wished to explain why the Sixth Patriarch set aside the kasaya and did not hand it on, and so I composed the "Inscription on the Buddha's Robe." The inscription says:

佛言不行，佛衣乃爭，忽近貴遠，古今常情。尼父之生，土無一里，夢奠之後，履存千祀。惟昔有梁，如象之狂，達摩救世，來為醫王。以言不痊，因物乃遷，如執符節，行乎復關。民不知官，望車而畏，俗不知佛，得衣為貴。壞色之衣，道不在茲，由之信道，所以為寶。六祖未彰，其出也微，既還狼荒，憬俗蚩蚩。不有信器，眾生曷歸，是開便門，非止傳衣。初必有終，傳豈無已，物必歸盡，衣胡久恃。先終知終，用乃不窮。我道不朽，衣於何有，其用已陳，孰非芻狗。

The Buddha's teaching could not be put into practice, and it was the Buddha's kasaya that caused contention; neglecting what is before the eyes and valuing what is far away is a human feeling constant through the ages. When Confucius was alive, his fief was less than one li; after his death, though the offerings before his coffin passed, his traces have remained a thousand years. In the Liang dynasty of old, rampaging like an elephant; Bodhidharma came to save the world, like a king of physicians. Words could not cure it, and so objects were borrowed to bring about change, like holding a tally and passing through checkpoints. The common people do not know the officials, and when they see the carriage they are awed; ordinary people do not know the Buddha, and only on obtaining the kasaya do they regard it as precious. A garment of a spoiled color, the Way is not in it; it is only borrowed to make people trust the Way, and so it became a treasure. The Sixth Patriarch at first was not prominent, and was of humble position when he came into the world; having returned to a remote place, its customs were ignorant and benighted. Without an object to win trust, on what would beings rely to come to him? This opened a gate of skillful means, and it was not that handing on the robe was the ultimate. Whatever has a beginning must have an end; could transmission not have a time to stop? An object must end in being used up, and how can a kasaya be relied on for long? Only by first knowing the end will it end, and thus its use will not be exhausted. My Way is imperishable, and what has it to do with the kasaya? Its use is already old, and which is not a straw dog, to be thrown away after use?

師入塔後，至開元十年壬戌八月三日，夜半忽聞塔中如拽鐵索聲。眾僧驚起，見一孝子從塔中走出，尋見師頸有傷，具以賊事聞於州縣。縣令楊侃、刺史柳無忝，得牒切加擒捉。五日於石角村捕得賊人，送韶州鞠問。云：「姓張名淨滿，汝州梁縣人。於洪州開元寺，受新羅僧金大悲錢二十千，令取六祖大師首，歸海東供養。」柳守聞狀，未即加刑，乃躬至曹溪，問師上足令韜曰：「如何處斷？」韜曰：「若以國法論，理須誅夷。但以佛教慈悲冤親平等，況彼求欲供養，罪可恕矣。」柳守加歎曰：「始知佛門廣大。」遂赦之。

After the Master entered the stupa, on the third day of the eighth month of the renxu year, the tenth year of Kaiyuan, in the middle of the night a sound as of dragging iron chains was suddenly heard in the stupa. The monks rose in alarm and saw a person in mourning clothes run out of the stupa, and then discovered a wound on the Master's neck, and reported the matter of the thief to the prefecture and county. The county magistrate Yang Kan and the prefect Liu Wutian received the notice and pressed the pursuit. On the fifth day the thief was captured in Shijiao village and sent to Shaozhou for interrogation. He confessed: "My surname is Zhang and my name is Jingman, and I am a man of Liang County in Ruzhou. At the Kaiyuan Temple in Hongzhou, I took twenty thousand cash from a Silla monk named Jin Dabei, who had me take the head of the Sixth Patriarch to bring back east of the sea for veneration." Prefect Liu, hearing the confession, did not at once apply punishment, but went himself to Caoxi and asked the Master's eminent disciple Lingtao: "How should this be judged?" Lingtao said: "By the law of the state, he should be put to death. But Buddhism is compassionate and treats enemies and kin alike, and moreover he did it to obtain an object of veneration, so the crime can be forgiven." Prefect Liu exclaimed: "Only now do I know how vast the Buddhist gate is." So he pardoned him.

上元元年，肅宗遣使，就請師衣缽歸內供養。至永泰元年五月五日，代宗夢六祖大師請衣缽，七日勅刺史楊緘云：「朕夢感能禪師請傳衣袈裟卻歸曹溪，今遣鎮國大將軍劉崇景，頂戴而送。朕謂之國寶，卿可於本寺如法安置，專令僧眾親承宗旨者嚴加守護，勿令遺墜。」後或為人偷竊，皆不遠而獲。如是者數四。憲宗諡大鑒禪師，塔曰元和靈照。其餘事蹟，係載唐尚書王維、刺史柳宗元、刺史劉禹錫等碑。守塔沙門令韜錄。

In the first year of Shangyuan, Emperor Suzong sent an envoy to invite the Master's robe and bowl into the palace for veneration. On the fifth day of the fifth month of the first year of Yongtai, Emperor Daizong dreamed that the Sixth Patriarch asked for the return of the robe and bowl, and seven days later he issued an order to the prefect Yang Jian, saying: "In a dream I sensed that Chan Master Huineng requested that the kasaya he had transmitted be returned to Caoxi, and I now send the General-in-Chief of the Guard of the Realm Liu Chongjing to carry it respectfully and escort it. I regard it as a treasure of the state, and you may place it in that temple according to the Dharma, and specifically order the monks who have directly received the teaching to guard it strictly, so that it is not lost or fallen." Afterward it was sometimes stolen, but each time it was recovered before the thief had gone far, and this happened several times. Emperor Xianzong gave the Master the title "Chan Master Dajian" and named the stupa "Yuanhe Spiritual Illumination." Other deeds are recorded in the inscriptions by Wang Wei, Minister of the Tang dynasty, Liu Zongyuan the prefect, Liu Yuxi the prefect, and others. Recorded by the stupa-guarding shramana Lingtao.

跋

What follows is the postscript (colophon) written by Zongbao for this book:

六祖大師平昔所說之法。皆大乘圓頓之旨。故目之曰經。其言近指遠。詞坦義明。誦者各有所獲。明教嵩公常讚雲。天機利者得其深。天機鈍者得其淺。誠哉言也。餘初入道。有感於斯。續見三本不同。互有得失。其板亦已漫滅。因取其本校讎。訛者正之。略者詳之。復增入弟子請益機緣。庶幾學者得盡曹溪之旨。按察使雲公從龍。深造此道。一日過山房睹餘所編。謂得壇經之大全。慨然命工鋟梓。顓為流通。使曹溪一派不至斷絕。或曰。達磨不立文字。直指人心見性成佛。盧祖六葉正傳。又安用是文字哉。餘曰。此經非文字也。達磨單傳直指之指也。南嶽青原諸大老。嘗因是指以明其心。復以之明馬祖石頭諸子之心。今之禪宗流佈天下。皆本是指。而今而後。豈無因是指。而明心見性者耶。問者唯唯再拜謝曰。予不敏。請併書於經末以詔來者。至元辛卯夏。南海釋宗寶跋。

The Dharma that the Sixth Patriarch taught in his ordinary days was all of the Mahayana perfect and sudden meaning, and so it is called a "sutra." His words are plain but their reference is profound, the phrases are simple and the principle clear, and those who recite it each gain something. Chan Master Qisong of Mingjiao once exclaimed in praise: "Those of sharp natural gifts gain its depth, and those of dull gifts gain its shallows." How true that saying is! When I first entered the Way, I was deeply moved on this point. Later I successively saw three different editions, each with gains and losses, and the woodblocks too had become blurred and worn away, so I took these editions and collated them: correcting what was wrong, supplying details where it was brief, and adding the section on the occasions when disciples asked for instruction, hoping that students could obtain the full picture of the Caoxi teaching. The Surveillance Commissioner Lord Yun Conglong, who has deep attainment in this Way, one day passed by my mountain hut and saw the edition I had compiled, and said that this deserved to be called the complete Platform Sutra, and heartily ordered craftsmen to carve the blocks, to be used exclusively for circulation, so that this branch of Caoxi would not be cut off. Someone said: Bodhidharma did not establish written words, but pointed directly at the human mind, to see one's nature and become a Buddha; the Lu Patriarch was the true transmission over six generations, so why use these written words? I said: this sutra is not written words, but the very "pointing" that Bodhidharma transmitted singly and pointed directly. The great elders Nanyue and Qingyuan once understood their own minds through this pointing, and used it to enable the minds of Mazu, Shitou and others to be understood. Now Chan has spread throughout the world, all rooted in this pointing; from now on, will there not be people who, through this pointing, understand the mind and see their nature? The questioner agreed repeatedly, bowed twice in thanks, and said: "I am not clever; please write these words together at the end of the sutra, to be shown to those who come after." Summer of the xinmao year of the Zhiyuan era; postscript by the Buddhist monk Zongbao of Nanhai.